I am Omega: The Last The End
by DaveTheCanner
Summary: After achieving victory, albeit a Pyrrhic one at that, the UNSC decides pursue a proposal stated by one of its officers to explore a new galaxy, accidentally discovered after the fall of Reach. As the UNSC starts becoming involved in the politics of this new galaxy, another officer, whose position in the military was achieved controversially, starts revealing his top secret.
1. Prologue

All right then. Hello ladies and gentlemen of the world of FanFiction! This is DaveTheCanner (cut me some slack, its the best name I could've come with when I created this account a month ago.) and I am trying out this new story! For now, it will just be this first prologue to judge if you guys really like this idea/protagonist. If you like it, I have the first story arc written, and ready to go in a while. I also have a few other thoughts about this story: it will partially be true to canon, it will partially not be, just stick with it; finally, if I start regularly producing chapters to this story, they will be published in arc, or multiple chapters at a time, rather than one at a time. In the meantime, here is my story, and I hope you like it.

* * *

I Am Omega: The Last. The End.

Prologue

 **UNSC Marathon-Class Cruiser _Feeling Lucky_**

 **August 30th, 2552 23:13:52**

 **In Slipspace, on route from _Reach_**

 **Destination: Unknown**

"We had one hundred and fifty vessels... ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY I TELL YOU! And guess what it was all for? NOTHING! They yielded SEVEN HUNDRED AND FIFTY! Against our measly one hundred and fifty... That's a near perfect FOUR TO ONE RATIO! WE WERE DOOMED FROM THE BEGINNING! HOW IS EARTH SUPPOSE TO PROTECT ITSELF WHEN WE COULD BARELY DEFEND THE ATMOSPHERE OF REACH!" shouted a feminine, Ukrainian voice.

"Calm down Captain." said a resolute, yet calming voice. "You do have to remember that the fleet managed to hold its own against the Covenant. Recent reports have Covenant fleet loses at around two-thirds of their total fleet size. You do have to admit that that is impressive. There's also the fact that all remaining ships have been called back to the Sol system. Speaking of which, where are we headed?"

"You guys always think that way, do you?" muttered the Captain under her breath.

"I'm sorry?" the male voice responded.

"You Spartans always try looking at things on the bright side of things. You believe that since you have seen the worst of war that you can pick out all of the good stuff to be thankful for." She spat at him. "Let me tell you, PUNK! We are in the most shittiest position one could be in. We are headed to some random system that isn't Earth. We have only ten, yes count that, ten ships that is most likely going to have to defend themselves against a pursuing fleet of fifty ships, and the only competent leader this fleet had is now dead! We are doomed."

During the fall of Reach, the fleet commander, who was aboard one of the only Carriers the UNSC had, fell trying to help all of the remaining ships retreat. Unfortunately, his carrier was destroyed before the ship could've made it into Slipspace. Currently, the leader for this adhoc group of ships was Captain Pasternak, who was starting to feel the weight of the situation fall on her shoulders.

For the first time, Captain Pasternak turned to confront the voice attempting to calm her nerves down.

She saw exactly what she was expecting to see. An inhuman, seven foot plus tall supersoldier, nay freak, clad in an olive green armor staring into a holopad. To the humans, they were their guardians. To the Covenant, they were a force wrought from hell who spell their imminent doom. To the Office of Naval Intelligence, they were pawns to do whatever they wanted them to do. To Captain Pasternak, they were freaks.

The Spartan looked up from his holopad and began to address the Captain again "I wouldn't throw in the towel just yet. We haven't even exited slipspace yet. Again, why aren't we headed directly towards Earth?"

The officer gave him a stern look "Cole protocol. Can't let them get anywhere closer to Earth."

The Spartan then tilted his helmeted face, as if giving her an inquisitive look "I thought the Cole protocol was intended only for the Outer colonies?"

Captain Pasternak gave a short yet honest reply "The more time it takes the Covenant to get to Earth, the more time she has to prepare herself."

Then a question popped in her head "I'm sorry, who are you again?"

The Spartan immediately rose from his chair and raised his hand to his forehead in a salute "I'm sorry, Commander Aleksander Nevsky, Spartan-300, at your service."

She gave a half-hearted salute back as she proceeded to take her post as the Captain of the _Feeling Lucky,_ and the temporary Commanding Officer of this adhoc fleet.

Aleks joined by her side, watching the bridge prepare to leave slipspace.

Many members of the bridge looked up to note that the Captain had taken her place, but also that there was a Spartan in their midst. He looked strange to some, being clad in the rare Hayabusa armor, but many didn't take notice, instead paying attention to their duty, so that the ship wasn't destroyed as it left slipspace.

After the fleet left slipspace, Aleks took the opportunity to note the size of their fleet.

They were one of the largest groups to of retreated from Reach, however that didn't change the fact that they were only ten ships strong: The _Feeling Lucky,_ a _Marathon_ class heavy cruiser; two _Halcyon_ class light cruisers; The UNSC _Hillsborough_ , a _Hillsborough_ class destroyer; three _Paris-_ Class heavy frigates; and three _Charon_ -Class light frigates. All-in-all, a sizable fleet.

Then the Captain called up the ship's AI, Edvard. On the table, a hologram of a tall, well-built Swede was projected.

"Yes ma'am?" The thick accented voice asked.

"Can you calculate the chance a Covenant fleet is pursuing us?" She inquired.

Simultaneously, Edvard and Aleks both responded in unison "around 42.3%"

Captain Pasternak was taken aback. Not at the percentage given, but by the fact that the Spartan responded to her question. A question that required turning an analytical proposal into a numerical response. A response that was exactly the same as the A.I.'s.

All the more reason that these Spartans are freaks, Pasternak quickly thought.

"Why such low a number?" Pasternak squeaked out, still surprised at the swift, and precise response at which the Spartan answered the question.

Edvard started the train of thought "Well first of all, we are a pretty sizable group compared to others..."

Aleks took over "which means if they sent an overwhelming force, which they are pretty capable of, they don't have to deal with us later..."

"however, they might have a hard time trying to quell us and may lose some ships in the process..." the AI quickly added.

"which added with their recent losses at Reach, means that they will lose more and more ships..." Aleks continued.

"which will deplete the original force intended to attack the Sol system..."

"and prevent the Covenant from pursuing the _Pillar of Autumn_ and its contents." Aleks finished.

Captain Pasternak was astonished at what she saw. The way Aleks went about coming to his conclusion matched that exactly as Edvard. It was like Aleks himself was an AI.

She finally got her head out of the clouds and focused on the real situation.

"Can you identify where we are?" She asked.

Edvard noted that they were located at the Alpha Centauri system, the closest system to Earth.

She asked how long it will take to spool the slipspace engines for another jump, to which the AI responded with ten minutes.

That gave Aleks a good amount of time to do what he likes best: reading, and thinking.

He and his team of Spartan-II's have had a very successful, yet painful run these past few years.

He and his colleagues came from an unknown second class of Spartan-II's. Just like the original class, there were 150 candidates chosen to partake, of which seventy-five were actually kidnapped and trained to be the guardians of humanity because budget cuts. Unlike the original class, however, thirty-five made it past the augmentation procedure, two more than the first class. However, this class was not as good as the original class. While everyone performed well, the only person who stood out the most was Aleks-300. While the original class had Kurt-051, Jerome-092, Frederic-104, John-117, the second class only had Aleks to pull them through.

These past few years saw the second class decrease from its original thirty-five, to a meager fraction of its original strength. Many of them are now declared Missing In Action by ONI, but Aleks knew that they were actually dead. He knew because he saw them die. Killed In Action is what the report should say, but the government has different opinions about that.

Aleks snapped out of his current state of thought when the communications officer shouted in a louder than needed voice "Captain, we've picked up a distress signal."

She responded likewise "From who?"

"We do not know, but we have a bead on where they are located. Should we pursue the signal?"

It was at this point the Covenant decided to come out of Slipspace behind the fleet, coming through a magnificent circle of black, purple, and white.

We don't have much of a choice, Captain Pasternak thought, and it's the only location we have prepared to jump to.

In a booming voice, she announced "Tell the entire fleet to pursue the signal, and get us out of here."

It didn't take long for the entire fleet to go into a Slipspace jump, given that if they decided to be sluggish about it, more ships would've been lost to the seemingly unstoppable Covenant tide.

After making it into the portal, a general sigh of relief was heard throughout the deck.

It was at this point Edvard gave an estimated time of arrival, or ETA.

"We'll be there in about a month." Edvard piped.

"A MONTH!?" Captain Pasternak gasped.

"It seems that this distressed signal was a whole lot farther away than I have anticipated." The AI stated.

"Given a month, they will most likely be dead by time we arrive..." Pasternak thought out loud.

The silent Spartan then decided to ask a question that was on his mind "How far is 'a whole lot farther away' that you did not anticipated?"

"By an analysis of star charts, and triangulation of the distress signal, it seems that we are headed to an entirely different galaxy." the AI surmised.

"AN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT GALAXY!" The Captain and the Spartan shouted in unison.

They realized that the entire bridge heard the outlash of a comment that both of them made, to which the Captain calmed their nerves with a simple "At ease, everything is under control."

A moment of silence followed.

No one knew what to do next, other than wait.

Another question sprang in the mind of Aleks.

"What was this distress signal that we picked up?"

The AI took a moment to respond.

"It appears the signal was coded in a different format. Give me a moment as I prepare the file to be projected." The AI finally responded.

After a while, a hologram appeared of what looked like to be a human. He had darker skin, by the looks of it, and sported a mustache connected to a goatee. The only difference it had to Aleks' was that Aleks had lighter hair than the figure on the table.

The figure then spoke "This is Senator Bail Organa contacting any Republic force from the Planet of Christophsis. The planet was invaded by the Separatists, and they are threatening full take over. The Christophsians aren't succeeding in their defense, and require some assistance. Please help us."

The figure disappeared from the table.

"Well... we are really getting ourselves into some very dangerous shit. By the sounds of it, we are entering a completely different war." Aleks concluded after thinking about the message for a moment.

Another moment of silence followed.

Then another.

Then a whole minute.

Aleks, being the chatty one of the night, broke the silence "Well... if it's going to be a month of nothing but Slipspace travel, then I'll get to my cryo sleep now."

The Captain agreed.

"Yeah, I'll order the entire ship into cryo soon. No point having everyone stay up for a month with nothing to do but wait."

"Be sure to wake me when I am actually needed." Aleks said as he walked out.

It didn't take long for Aleks to find an open cryogenic freeze pod. The past few years, have been nothing but fight, lose, freeze, wake, and the entire process would repeat. Maybe this might be a massive break for him. Maybe he could fight a battle he could actually win.

Maybe he can fight a war he could win.

This was his last thought he had as his eyes closed, and his body froze to a state where it aged at a faction of a fraction of its typical rate.

* * *

 **RSS _Resolute_**

 **September 30th, 2552 23:10:43**

 **In Orbit around Christophsis**

 **Admiral Yularen**

Admiral Yularen stood on the bridge of his flagship, the RSS Resolute, with a feeling of pride in him. Just a month ago, he and the Jedi assigned to him, the bold and brash Anakin Skywalker, managed to take down the infamous Admiral Trench of the CIS. At least, he hoped they did.

Then it settled in that in a few minutes, Anakin would come back onto the bridge, they would be assigned somewhere else, and Anakin would get another chance to either nearly destroy his ship, or get them all killed in some sort of suicidal maneuver, or both.

He was really annoyed that he was assigned to Skywalker. He was generally a horrible general to be around. He's very reckless, and rarely heeds the advice of people who obviously have more experience, and are more knowledgeable than him. Worst of all, he now has a Padawan, which only means that his suicidal ways are going to be taught to someone else.

It's a real shame, Yularen continued. She was real nice. Very eager to begin learning. She is probably going to get herself killed, given that her teacher is well known for being close to doing just that.

While thinking about all of this, Admiral Yularen almost missed the giant purple and white hole that suddenly appeared and disappeared from far off the port bow.

He quickly did a double take of what he just saw.

"Don't worry Admiral, I saw that too." said one of the crew members on the bridge.

"Does anyone know what that was?" Yularen asked in his accented voice.

No real answer came his way before another crew member piped up.

"Admiral, we have just detected ten ships of unknown origin that just appeared in sector eight."

It took the Admiral a few seconds of scanning the black space to find the ships. Eventually, he noticed four angular, and elongated ships, with six ships just like it, just smaller. Their black paint nearly blended them in with the black of space behind them.

A crew member came up to the Admiral "Sir, should we prepare for battle?"

The Admiral went into thought again.

He has never seen such ships like those before. The obviously seemed to be built with a war-like nature to them, but were they Separatist? He didn't need another battle, especially after what happened with Trench. Or maybe, they could help them fight, and win this war?

The Admiral finally had a response "Try to contact them, and get me in contact with General Skywalker."

He was answered with an abrupt "Yes sir."

It didn't take long for Anakin to respond.

"What's going on Admiral?"

"Sir, it appears that a small detachment of ships of unknown origin just appeared in sector eight." The Admiral responded.

"I don't see them." Anakin said.

"Trust me, they're there." Yularen responded.

He started getting chills as the ships slowly turned towards the fleet, then immediately lost them as the ships continued turning around.

"Oh, now I see them Admiral. Have you tried contacting them?" said Anakin.

"We're trying... Wait, we might have contact. WAIT, WAIT, WAIT..." the Admiral boomed.

He looked away from the hologram of the person who, just ten minutes ago, he was complaining about to see what he didn't expect to see.

The ships were retreating. Turned around completely, and just started leaving.

"Admiral, what's happening?" the hologram shouted from nearby.

All that everyone saw next was that the ten ships that were there one minute, then entered a purple and white portal, and suddenly disappeared with it.

And that was the first incidence of contact between the UNSC, and the Republic.


	2. Chapter 1

_**Author's note**_ : Good day ladies and gentlemen. I see that there is a general agreement that more should be posted, and post I shall. (Comments and review please.)

* * *

 **Chapter 1**

 **November 16th, 2552 16:33:52**

 **Cleveland, Ohio, United States of America, United Republic of North America, Earth**

 **Cmdr. Aleksander Nevsky**

If given four words to describe the former booming city of Cleveland, they would be the following: bodies, glass, and empty skyscrapers.

"It's a real damn shame," said Nigel Horn, the team's scout, "I heard this is where the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is located. Really would've wished to visit it."

Nigel was a rather stockier guy. He was taller than Aleks, then again, everyone on the team was, but Nigel's last height check was around seven foot, with armor on. While he wasn't the tallest on the team, he didn't fit the norm as the team's scout, and sniper. Most Spartan snipers typically clock in at around six to six and a half feet. Where Nigel's height might be a disadvantage, he had impeccable aim, an endurance that can see him run for an entire day on end, a disturbing hunter's instinct, and an incredible knack for learning and predicting the terrain. If someone stood out as the Australian outback stereotype, it was Nigel. He had the accent too. The only thing that sold him short was his armor. His sand colored scout armor, as he complained, did little to show off his tanned complexion, and the gruff full beard and mustache he 'worked so hard' to achieve.

"Yeah, but what else is there here to explore other than that. I see nothing here but offices and apartments." said the suave french accent of the team's assault specialist.

Uduak Uzochi was the second tallest of the team at seven foot six inches with armor on, and weighed an impressive three hundred pounds when outside of his armor, a white CQC type. He looked incredibly massive given that he was nothing but muscle upon muscle upon muscle. This gave him a definitive advantage in close quarters, which he found himself in more times than he really should be. Unfortunately, these encounters did two things to him: gave him an ego whenever fighting the Covenant, especially in close quarters; and gave him a bloodlust. A lust for Sangheili blood. Uduak blames his heritage for these flaws, citing that he is a descendant of a powerful king from a tribe in Africa.

He also used this claim to argue that the team should've been deployed to New Mombasa, where the Master Chief was fighting hordes of Covenant to defend a piece of Forerunner technology, saying that it was 'his family's land'.

"We should be fighting for my land," said Uduak "besides, it looks better than this filth of a city." He promptly kicked over the body of a Grunt, checking to see that it was dead, and to tease his bloodlust. "When I own my land again, there will be buildings out of pure gold and salt. Canals stretching across the Sahara. Cities that make Timbuktu look shameful."

"To tell you the truth," said the country voiced big guy toward the rear of the advancing column "I really don't give a damn."

Deven Ingram was the resident 'dough boy', which everyone liked teasing him by. As the team's heavy weapons specialist and engineer, he's suppose to be a big guy, but even then, he's big for a big guy. He beats Jorge's height by two full inches, making Deven an impressive seven foot six inches _without_ armor on, and a daunting eight foot two inches _with_ armor on. He also holds records in the team asthe most heaviest, 400 pounds without his dark blue EOD armor on, and most weight lifted.

Surprisingly, Uduak comes in third for that last record.

The team of five turned the corner onto a wide stretch of road, where they fanned out into an arrow, with Aleks on point.

"You are just jealous because all you can possibly ask for in your life is a farm in that state you always blab on about. What was it called again? Wiscago?" Uduak retorted.

"It's Wisconsin," Deven replied, looking at his M247H heavy machine gun, "and there is no shame in being a dairy farmer. That's what my parents did anyways."

To the left of Aleks, the team's XO was making comments to Aleks about their surroundings "It looks like fighting got more intense here, do you think we are getting close Commander?"

She hated seeing Aleks the way he was. It was normal for Aleks to remain silent, and focused on the task on hand, but he wasn't responding to the attempts she made to talk to him over the private they had set up. He hasn't responded to anything really.

He hasn't talked since he briefed the team on their job.

Emilie Busch was easily one of the most tidiest and organized members of the team. Being the team's communications officer and executive officer, she believed it was necessary. Despite being the only girl of the team, she wasn't the shortest, and by a significant margin. She stood at six foot six inches in armor, and sported a bright red EVA armor. What set her apart from the rest of the team was her communication skills. She carried a long distance radio with them, and could speak multiple languages, Sangheili included. She held a lot of combat experience, being at Aleks' side for a lot of the battles he fought in. These experiences made them friends. Really good friends.

It was one of these 'really good friends' experiences that really made her scared for Aleks.

She could remember the thought perfectly. As the _Feeling Lucky_ was escaping Reach, the entire team was afraid they weren't going to make it. Emilie was the most scared. She managed to catch Aleks talking to the Captain, hoping to calm herself down.

After Aleks finished the conversation with the Captain, she came up to him.

"Hey, uh, Aleks?" she asked timidly.

"Yeah?" he responded nonchalantly, as if their imminent doom wasn't apparent.

"Can we talk?" she requested.

"Sure." he replied.

They started walking down to where the cryo-pods were. She was already prepared for cryogenic sleep. She got out of her armor, and was in nothing but a blouse, and UNSC issued running shorts. Aleks made no notice of that, or if he did, his armor completely hid it.

"Do you think we'll make it?" Emilie asked.

"Definitely." Aleks responded.

Their short conversation went back and forth until they made it to the cryo-pods. It was at this point she turned to him with butterflies in her stomach. There was one question that burned in her the most.

"Do you think after all of this is over... do you think we will stay together?" she asked him.

"Well..." he started "as a team, I believe we are pretty effective and..."

She put two of her fingers on where his mouth would be.

"Do you think you and I will stay together?" she finally inquired.

The next that happened shocked her.

Silence.

He just stood there, staring off towards ground behind her. Typically he would have an answer right off the bat, or he would start thinking out loud, and proceed to come up with a solution.

Just silence.

After a while, she removed his helmet. He just stood there, concentrating on something. She lifted his head to meet her eyes.

Her deep blue eyes met his medium-dark green eyes.

"Do you think we will?" she finally asked.

Again, he didn't respond, but this time they started making their way to her cryo-pod. As Aleks started lowering Emilie into her pod, he had his response.

"In my most honest opinion Emilie, you are a very nice person, and a you've been a great friend to me these past few years..."

She liked where he was going as she started settling into the pod.

"But... this war isn't over, and I don't know who will win. We still have a lot ahead of us, and I don't know where this path goes. So my conclusion is I don't know. All I know is that we will just fight, and hope that it is enough to win... I'm sorry." he concluded.

What happened next surprised Aleks.

Emilie springed out of the pod, wrapped her arms around Aleks, and kissed him.

"Then fight for me." She whispered to him.

"Well... if you want your damn family's land, why then don't you head over there right fucking now and get it for yourself!?" Roared Deven to Uduak.

Emilie snapped out of her daydream. The entire team was stopped now. Deven was at Uduak's throat, and vice versa.

"You are still jealous that I have social status, and a bright future ahead of me, while you are stuck working on the fields like a peasant." Uduak retorted.

It was at this point Nigel decided to step in "Okay, Godzilla. Okay, King Kong. There's no need to go about destroying Tokyo and New York together."

Uduak turned to face the slightly shorter man "What stake do you have in this argument? I will break you like your name would suggest: stickman."

The three converged to fight, and Emilie started to get in the middle to stop it, but she couldn't stop them.

They were about to begin brawling when a voice as powerful as a gale force wind itself erupted from in front of them.

"ENOUGH... STOP YOUR BICKERING AND YOUR BANTERING. DO YOU BELIEVE THAT THIS IS WHAT THE RESIDENTS OF EARTH ARE EXPECTING TO SEE WHEN THEY SEE THEIR GUARDIANS? DO YOU THINK THIS IS WHAT SERGEANT MENDEZ EXPECTED OUT OF US? IF YOU START BEATING EACH OTHER UP, I MIGHT AS WELL SHOOT YOU ALL MYSELF, AND SAVE THE COVENANT THE TIME. YOU ARE ACTING LIKE CHILDREN, AND I WANT THIS TO STOP RIGHT NOW. DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?"

All four of them turned around to face their commanding officer, who had to berate them again.

In unison, they chanted "Yes sir."

He replied, "Good."

And they were off again.

Emilie couldn't help but think about their commanding officer: Aleksander Nevsky. The best word to describe him was conundrum. He was the top of their class, surpassing all of them by a significant margin. He was just perfect at almost everything he did.

He was only six feet tall _with_ his black Hayabusa armor on, but he was incredibly built for his height. He held second place in the team for the most weight lifted. He could beat everyone in a fight easily, and he had a command voice that rivaled that of Mendez, even without the built in speakers on the Spartan armor. He was built like a leader. He was just perfect, Emilie thought, and that is his flaw: he has none. There always was this sense of inhuman to him. Like he was a guinea pig for ONI to test experiments on, and then they decided to slap him in Mjolnir armor and said it was the Spartan program that caused it. Despite knowing him for so long, the entire team really didn't know him entirely.

And yet, he was what kept the entire team together.

Emilie once again tried contacting him through their private channel.

"Hey, what's on your mind?"

This time, he had a response "Nothing of any current importance."

It might though, Aleks thought to himself. After the _Feeling Lucky_ left slipspace into this new galaxy, the Captain and him observed that they appeared by a blueish-green planet. In orbit around the planet were triangular ships, most likely of a military use. It took a while, but the ships turned to face them. The Captain was seeing if they could contact them and help with the distress, but then news came through that the Covenant discovered the Sol system, and an entire invasion fleet was destroyed as a first strike initiative. The entire bridge was all in agreement to return to the galaxy where they came from, despite not making contact with these new people. It was only as the fleet started entering the portal to slipspace did they find an avenue through which to contact them, but then it was lost. Aleks immediately filed a report, describing the entire incident. The foreign fleet, the planet, everything. He concluded it with a proposition that the UNSC pursue an exploration of this new system, if they made it through this war.

Probably won't ever happen, Aleks concluded.

"Hey Commander, what are we doing anyways?" Deven shouted from the back.

"Agreed, where are we marching to?" Uduak inquired as well.

"Our objective is to meet up with Tango company of the Army's Sixth Regiment. Once we meet up at their Forward Operation Base, we coordinate efforts for the rescue of some civilians." Aleks stated.

"Crikey mate, they deployed an entire company to assist us?" said Nigel.

"They deployed the entire regiment to this city, with additional support from an armored division, an assortment of Army Air Corps assets, Spartan Team Omicron, and us." Aleks replied.

Deven gave a pretty audible whistle from the back.

"What is so important that the UNSC deployed nearly a thousand troops, and two Spartan teams?" Uduak asked.

"I will tell you, but let's wait until we reach the FOB so that our intel and our final plan are secured." Aleks responded.

"Speaking of FOB, shouldn't we be there by now Aleks?" Emilie piped in.

"We're close. Just around this corner." Aleks said.

As the team round the corner, two things appeared in their view: in the background, the Cleveland Browns stadium, in all of its magnificent, despite its team, glory; in the foreground, bodies of UNSC personnel, Covenant, and civilians strewn about.

"Search for survivors." Aleks responded to this change of scene.

The team dispersed into the surrounding buildings, many of which had their fronts were destroyed, or collapsed into the streets. In between the cracks of asphalt, a deep red liquid ran: blood. Aleks continued to walk own the street, taking in the scene. Many of the bodies had plasma burns riddled all over them, except for the occasional body that had two sizable lines burned in them. These lines were in line with each other, and ran parallel to each other: the mark of an energy sword. Despite how they died, they all bore the same face. Wide-eyed, mouth gaping open in a gut wrenching scream as they saw their imminent doom. Some bodies were in two, with their innards spilling onto the road. One or two just lost a single limb, an arm or a leg.

Every so often, Aleks would try to contact Tango company, with no avail. Once, a weapon discharged as Nigel found a straggling Grunt, and finished him before their position was compromised.

There was one body Aleks picked out that stood out from the rest. It was inside a coffee shop on the corner of the street. Aleks entered, and noticed UNSC communications equipment, hastily put up as if these guys just fell back from another position, or they had just set up this position. Unlike the rest of the bodies, this one was sitting against one of the walls. As Aleks got closer, he noted that the soldier had his pistol in his hand, all the other dead soldiers didn't. It was then Aleks noticed the wound that killed this man, a bullet hole in the head. Alek wiped away the dust on the guys name-tag, and noticed the rank of the individual: Captain. Aleks got up, and look at two other guys: Lieutenants. It didn't take long for the realization to hit Aleks.

"Hey guys, I just found the FOB."


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

 **November 16** **th** **, 2552 18:35:23**

 **Cleveland, Ohio, United States of America, United Republic of North America, Earth**

 **Cmdr. Aleksander Nevsky**

It didn't take long for Emilie to fix the communications equipment, and get the team in contact with the rest of the regiment. Apparently, Tango company was unfortunate enough to receive a group of Covenant that came in to reinforce the enemy in the city already. The rest of the regiment didn't respond because they didn't want to be detected, and lose sight of their real mission here.

"What is our mission, mate?" Nigel said through the battle-com. He was stationed on top of the skyscraper the coffee shop that housed the FOB was located in.

"Nigel, take a look into the stadium. What do you see?" Aleks answered.

Nigel peered into the scope of his sniper rifle. He saw that all of the seats of the Stadium were full of people.

"A typical Browns game?" Nigel noted, "I don't understand why people would be attending a Browns game in the middle of a battle. I don't think the Browns are worth that much."

"Were they ever good?" Deven piped in the battle-net.

"I don't know, but I heard from a friend that the only people who like the Browns are the people of Cleveland." Uduak responded.

"Nigel looked harder, there's more there than people, footballs, and popcorn vendors." said Aleks.

After looking harder, and closer at the crowd, Nigel realized there were Covenant soldiers interspersed throughout the crowd.

"See what you mean Commander, place's crawling with them Covenant buggers." Nigel said.

"The Covenant were tipped of about a piece of Forerunner artifact called the Key of Osanalan," Aleks stated "which is supposedly located here."

Uduak looked up, "Why does it feel like you're making this up?"

"Because it doesn't exist. Colonel Ackerson pulled this bull out of nowhere and tricked the Covenant into deploying forces here. The Covenant doesn't know that this is a fake, so they captured the city and its people, and are interrogating them for the Key of M. Night Shyamalan's wherabouts." Aleks mused.

"And we are here to rescue the poor souls that got involved." Emilie finished.

"So what's the plan boss?" Nigel asked.

"Currently working with the rest of the regiment to figure that out." Aleks replied.

"I think we should just charge in there guns blazing. We have the numbers. We'll just overwhelm them." Deven suggested.

"Nope, too dangerous with the civilians. Stray bullets would hit them." Aleks retorted.

"Why doesn't the entire regiment just sneak in, and then we can fight them in close quarters." Uduak said brandishing his knife, looking at it with a crooked glee.

"You want to try sneaking an entire regiment worth of soldiers into the stadium. I don't think that they are even effective at close quarters." Aleks noted.

"How about picking them off one-by-one with sniper fire?" Nigel suggested.

"We don't have enough snipers to make it effective. Plus, the enemy would then hide from us, using the civilians as meat shields." Aleks answered.

"How about dropping the troops into the stadium via Pelicans?" Emilie piped.

"Too obvious. The one thing we having going for us is the element of surprise, and we can't waste that." Aleks spoked.

These were all great ideas, Aleks thought, and he should make a note to tell them about how good their ideas are. It's just that in this situation, they needed a fool proof plan. One that kept the Covenant on their feet, yet straightforward enough that the regular soldiers could concentrate on not killing civilians. An idea struck him.

Aleks got in communication with the other Spartan team "Team Omicron, do you still have your snipers? Good. Regiment command, how well do you trust your snipers? Enough? Good." He turned to the team "I got a plan."

 **One hour later.**

The team, with the exception of Nigel, were walking through the huge service hallways of the stadium. It was rather easy to sneak into the stadium, since there were little to no guards keeping watch. They were planning on making their ways to the entrance ramps to the fields. Team Omicron was also doing the same thing, but on the opposite side of the field.

They arrived near the ramp entrance.

"All units, weapon check." Aleks whispered through the battle-com.

Aleks checked his M392 DMR, his weapon of choice, then his Magnum. They looked good.

"One, weapons green." He said to his team.

"Two, weapons green." Emilie said behind him. Her choice of weaponry was a standard MA5 Assualt Rifle, two M7 submachine guns, and a Magnum.

"Four, weapons green." Uduak said, reattaching his submachine gun to his thigh, and picking up his shotgun, "Will a shotgun be okay?"

"As long as you use buckshot." Aleks replied.

"Five, weapons green." Deven finished off.

"Nigel, have you identified high priority targets and designated targets?" Aleks asked. Nigel was currently on top of a skyscraper, coordinating efforts with the snipers from Team Omicron and the sixth regiment.

"We're good." Nigel responded.

"Regiment command and Omicron One, are we ready?" Aleks continued.

He got go aheads from both.

The plan was pretty good. It was a combination of everyone's ideas. Initially, the Spartan teams were designated to sneak into the stadium. When they started their attack, the snipers were to take out all high priority targets, then support the Spartans as they held their positions. Hopefully, in this distraction the Covenant wouldn't notice the entire regiment charging at the stadium at full speed.

"Let's hope this plan works out." muttered Aleks to himself.

"This is regiment command, begin the attack." Aleks heard over the com.

He started running down the hallway, turned onto the ramp, and out onto the field. Right after dashing out, he made an immediate left turn, planted the barrel of his DMR onto the cheek of the Elite he knew stood guard right outside the ramp, and pulled the trigger. One shot did enough, sending the Elite minor sprawling onto the field. Aleks turned around to see Emilie taking position behind him, and Uduak ramming the other Elite minor and plant a shell into his face as well.

 _CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!_

Aleks lead his team along the wall, which separated the stands from the field, towards center field. When they arrived, they started taking pot shots at any Covenant that was easy to take out.

Everytime Aleks look over the wall, his gun would snap, with superhuman accuracy, from where he thought the general location of an enemy was, straight to the enemy's head. One shot was all that was needed.

Deven made real good use of the tripod for his machine gun, setting it up with his back to the wall, mowing down any Covenant that got onto the field. It took one time for the enemy to realize that sending a squad through the entrance ramps onto the field was a one way ticket to being shot literally in half by Deven.

Uduak had moderate success with his buckshot, pump action shotgun. At times, especially when he tried shooting at further targets, the bullet would drop massively, hitting the concrete steps below his intended target. However, whenever an enemy got as close as ten rows to the field, he was brutally effective as stopping them in their tracks with his shotgun. He cracked a smile after every kill.

Emilie was keeping her flank pretty tight. While she may of not had the stopping power that Aleks had at range, she was doing a better job at keeping the enemy away then Uduak. She then noticed a Grunt getting blown away. That wasn't my shot, she thought to herself. Aleks must've finished all of the Covenant in front of him, and started working on her flank.

This prompted her to say "Hey! Stop killing my kills!"

"Sorry, just ran out of Covenant. If you insist, I'll start stealing from Uduak." Aleks mused.

"Do that, and I'll just start heading home." Uduak joked.

While the battle in the stadium seemed to be all sorts of chaos, Nigel was really enjoy the afternoon. He was lying belly down on top of a skyscraper, laying his cheek on his sniper rifle.

 _CRACK!_ He watched a suicide Grunt fly into his superiors, blowing them up in a ball of plasma.

He decided before the mission started to take his helmet off, and lay it off to the side. He was really enjoying the nice breeze that he got from being up high.

 _CRACK!_ He heard as the bullet traveled to its intended target, a Jackal, broke through the shield it carried, and ripped his head right off.

He shifted around to allow the magazine to fall off of the rifle, and replaced the magazine. He also took the opportunity to take another swig from the beer bottle off to his side. He managed to find an unopen bottle during his hike up to the top.

He looked over the stadium to see the sun setting. It was real beautiful sight. The hues of yellows and oranges, mixed with the grays and the blues of the incoming clouds created a beautiful sight.

 _CRACK!_ He watched an Elite minor be separated from his entire left arm, and a chunk of his chest.

He felt the wind pick up, brushing against the back of his exposed head.

Seems like a storm is coming, his experience in the wild told him.

 _CRACK!_

"Ah shit, I missed." He told himself.

 _CRACK!_

The second shot missed the target he was originally aiming for, another Elite minor taking refuge behind a pillar at the top of the seating area.

 _CRACK!_

The third shot nailed the Elite right in between his eyes as he jumped from behind the pillar. The bullet had so much kinetic energy behind it that not only did the bullet entered and exited the poor Elite, but ripped his head off as well.

Nigel couldn't helped but amuse himself, "Boom. Headshot."

The resistance in the stadium started lightening up, Aleks noticed. The regiment must be beginning siege to the stadium. Now is the time to push.

"Alright guys, advance into the stands, and finish off any Covenant." Aleks ordered.

Everyone except for Deven made a resounding "Yes sir," and started moving into the stands, Team Omicron followed suit.

Deven hailed Aleks immediately after the response, "Commander, I'm going to be a minute."

Deven started fumbling around with the release mechanism of the tripod. He then looked up to see a Hunter pair emerged from the ramps. Deven cursed to himself before beginning to open up on one of the hunters. It was a hard task, but Deven got enough bullets past the gigantic shield to kill one of them. The other didn't take its friend's death too lightly.

Immediately it hunched itself lower, and began charging at Deven at pretty fast lumber.

Deven started to fire his machine gun again, and immediately ran out of bullets. Deven quietly cursed to himself, and began starting to reload.

He frantically looked up, and realized that the Hunter was coming closer and closer to his position.

Reloading was fruitless at this point, he thought. So he tried something crazy. Absolutely crazy.

He stepped out from behind his gun, leaned over, and moved his left leg slightly back. He then pushed forward, and broke out in an all out sprint, towards the Hunter. He was pulling an astonishing fifty kilometers per hour, as he needed all the speed.

The Hunter, expecting what was about to happen, started leaning into his shielded arm.

The two charged at each other, getting closer and closer. One extremely heavy, and the other extremely fast.

Then, they collided.

To the surprise of the Hunter, he initially made some headway against this fast enemy, but then his slow crawl after the collision suddenly stopped. The Demon had won this fight.

Back in the stands, Uduak was having a sadistic laugh as he mowed down retreating Covenant forces with glee. While to some members of this team this was just an everyday job, he relished every moment.

He reached the top of of the stands, and proceeded around the corner into the concessions area. The only thing that was in his way was an Elite minor grieving over the death of an Elite major, who was missing half of his head. After seeing the Spartan arrive, the Elite hastily grabbed the energy sword from his dead partner, and started it up, displaying a mighty sword made completely out of plasma.

Perfect, Uduak thought to himself, a fight to be remembered for. He threw his shotgun off to the side, and removed his helmet and threw it off to the side as well.

The Elite was slightly scared, seeing a demon in face for the first time. He had only heard rumors about them. About how they were capable of defeating armies single-handed, and now here was one in front of him. It was until it removed its helmet, revealing the charred face of one of those darker humans, wearing an evil smile that called for blood, was he really scared.

They closed to each other, and then clashed. Despite the training the Elite received in swordsmanship, the Spartan not only deflected the lunge he made, but actually caught both of his arms. He looked into the black eyes of the individual he was fighting. The only word he heard out of the Demon was "Perfect," and it immediately made him drop his sword in fear.

Elsewhere, Emilie was busy running up the stairs, making sure not to trip and fall, as she was acting as bait for the remaining Covenant, who might've been hiding in the crowd sitting in the stands. She had enticed the rest to peek their heads out, only for Aleks, who was following behind her, to quickly pick them off.

She made it to the top of the stands, and proceeded to continue into the concessions area of the stadium. It was when she walked past a corner, a Sangheili Ultra decided to make its presence noticed to her. He decloaked, knocked her assault rifle out of her hands, and grabbed her by her neck. He lifted her up, carried her out into the open, and fired up his energy sword.

"You pesky Demon. It is time to end you." he said to her, then started swinging his sword to end her.

 _BANG! BANG! BANG!_

Immediately, three shots were fired. The first two shots connected with the Elite's shield, breaking it instantly, which allowed the third shot to hit the Ultra's head, killing it instantly. The Ultra, and his would-be victim collapsed to the ground.

Emilie looked up to see Aleks run over to her, and proceed to cover her.

"Let's move," he retorted.

Despite the curt introduction, she recognized that there was a mission to be done, and promptly got up, and grabbed her assault rifle off the ground. She looked up to see Aleks already moving on to the next area without her, and she proceeded to catch up.

"Oh god..." she heard Aleks mutter, and she immediately double-timed to his position, as she knew that this is never a good sign, coming from Aleks.

She came up behind Aleks, who was standing beside the counter of a concession stand, and asked "What is it?"

He merely pointed in front of him.

She looked, and gasped. How could a human do this?

In front of them was Uduak, lying on top of an Elite minor. It was pretty obviously he was alive, and his victim was dead, but it was his method of killing that perturbed them.

Instead of choosing to fight with the Elite with bare hands, he chose to fight with his mouth. The scene wasn't at all pretty.

"Uduak," Aleks half shouted "is that really necessary?"

Uduak lifted his head, and stood up. He cleaned his mouth out to talk.

"It will make a great story to my people." He boasted.

Aleks looked down at the corpse. Its head was shoved into looking up, but was currently looking at its side. A gaping hole in its neck. No marks on the body, except on the wrists, where Aleks presumed that was how Uduak got control of the fight.

"Yeah, I bet it will." Aleks said condescendingly.

He took another look at the face of the victim. The mouth was wide open, screaming as he saw his imminent doom, but yet, no sound came out. It wasn't the mouth that persuaded Aleks. It was the eyes. They were bright, hopeful, yet glazed, as in sadness. Eyes of a child.

Aleks followed the eyes of the victim, and saw the body of an Elite major.

"How did you find him?" Aleks inquired, pointing at the dead minor.

"Cuddling the major, like a baby." Uduak boasted.

Aleks looked at one of the dead Elites, then the other, then at Uduak.

 _WHAM!_

Aleks slammed his fist against the side of Uduak's face.

"They were brothers, and yet you had the nerve to take advantage of one them FOR YOUR OWN PERSONAL GAIN!" Aleks ended in another scream.

Uduak merely held his mouth in a hard line at Aleks through the copious amounts of blood on his face, which was now starting to drip on his white armor.

"We have a greater objective to complete, and yet you decided to take the time out of this already time sensitive mission to go all primal and slaughter an Elite in an UNNECCESARILY BRUTAL WAY?" Aleks shouted at the man a foot and a half taller than him.

Uduak just continued to stare at him, and he could tell by the demeanor of the shorter man, that he was wearing a frown that showed so much anger, it could send shivers down the back of a Field Marshall Elite.

Emilie turned around, feeling embarrassed by this whole debacle, and saw that men from the sixth regiment were watching the whole thing with awe. Never had they ever seen a Spartan be berated, especially when it's the shorter one berating the taller one. Emilie just shooed them away, "There's nothing for you to see here."

Aleks looked down past the body, and saw Uduak's own shotgun and helmet sprawled on the ground, just like the dead body. Aleks walked over, picked them both up, walked to Uduak, and handed the helmet back to him.

"From here on out, you will have your helmet on throughout the entire duration of a mission, and you will only kill with something in your hands in a humane way." Aleks stated.

He slammed the shotgun into the chest of Uduak, causing his shields to decrease partially.

"Do I make myself clear?" Aleks asked in a forceful tone.

"Yes sir." Uduak grunted out of his mouth.

"Good." Aleks snarled back, turned around, and walked away.

Deven was rushing up the stairs. He heard the Aleks' shouting all the way at the bottom of the field. He was in the middle of a pounding of a Hunter. When he heard the voice of their CO, he knew something was wrong, and finished the fight.

He ran up to Emilie, "What's... *breath* going... *breath* on... *breath* up here?" He wasn't the best know for being athletic, but he found that he never had to work excessively in his line of work.

"Commander is berating Uduak." she replied.

"For... *breath* what?" he said, still trying to catch his breath.

She simply pointed at the two corpses, Deven took a look, and completely understood what happened.

"Oh Jesus..." he muttered.

"Yep." she replied.

"This time, he really deserved it." Deven concluded.

"Yeah..." Emilie signed.

"You feeling okay Emil?" Deven asked.

"I'm scared for Aleks. Like this team is dragging him back, and we can't do anything to get to his level of proficiency." she admitted.

"Hmmmm..." Deven sighed. She had a point, but there was something wrong with her argument though. Even though he might berate them from time to time, Aleks seemed to be doing them for good reasons, and even though he wouldn't spend a lot of time with them outside of armor, the time that he did was always memorable, with a lot of good humor and jokes being spread. When he was in armor, Aleks always seemed he was for the team, always talking to them, and checking on them. He cared for everyone he worked with, nearly getting himself killed all the time just to save anyone of the team, or even a regular marine for that fact.

"I don't think that is entirely it." Deven said.

Emilie looked up at the behemoth.

"I think he cares for us too much. I think ever since we were young, he has been trying to help us succeed at the level he had." Deven stated, "In the end, I don't know."

Silence filled the conversation for a moment.

"You know what?" Deven piped up, looking at Emilie, "I think you should have a conversation with him about that... and other things when we are done with this mission." He winked at her.

She felt a sense of warmth fill her. It may happen, she thought to herself. She looked at the behemoth, and smiled, her eyes glistening with hope.

Aleks voiced broke out on the battle-com, "All Spartans. I need you on the field, down by the fifty yard line. A situation has arisen."

All the Spartans immediately made their way to the field, not knowing what the fates may have in store for them.


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

 **November 16** **th** **, 2552 19:53:53**

 **Cleveland, Ohio, United States of America, United Republic of North America, Earth**

 **Cmdr. Aleksander Nevsky**

"Half of an entire battalion?" Aleks asked the CO of Sixth regiment.

The Colonel looked at him with an affirmed stare, "In fifteen minutes."

Aleks sighed.

He heard boots run up behind him. He turned around to find both his team, and Team Omicron forming a circle around him.

"What's the scoop Commander?" Aleks heard Nigel ask behind him.

It was impressive how fast Nigel made his way into the stadium, Aleks thought to himself.

"Apparently the Covenant are sending reinforcements. Half a battalion's worth of reinforcements to be exact. They arrive in fifteen." Aleks informed.

"Can't we evacuate before they arrive?" Nigel ask.

"No, there simply isn't enough time given the amount of pelicans we have to evacuate all few hundred civilians, plus the entire regiment, and us." Aleks explained.

"If we stay here, we'll be overwhelmed. We might do it, but the regiment won't be able to." said the leader of Team Omicron. Dave Sparks, as Aleks remembered.

"Yeah..." Aleks sighed.

A minute of silence followed as both teams started brainstorming possible solutions, so that as many civilians are evacuated, but the casualties aren't high.

Uduak, of all people, decided to forth his idea, not expecting to succeed. "How about just us Spartans take them on? Sorta like... distract them while the others evacuate." he said.

Immediately, the group erupted.

"How can we just abandon our comrades like that?"

"You just want more fame behind your name."

"How can you say that after what you just did?"

Everyone was fighting the idea, except for Aleks, who just stood in the middle in silence, pondering the idea.

His mind was running at a mile a minute. _It's suicide, even for us Spartans._ But it isn't impossible, plus we'll be getting the bulk of the forces away from the civilians _,_ and the regiment. _Even if we did get the battalion to follow us, how could we get them to continue to follow us?_ We could trick the General, or Field Marshal, leading them to follow us for a personal reason _._

The teams were still bickering over the idea Uduak suggested. The conversation turned into shaming Uduak, and it really irked Aleks.

"Hey guys," Aleks called out, receiving the undivided attention from the others around him, "that may actually be a sound plan to work with."

Everyone sighed, since they all were in a general acceptance that Uduak's idea was stupid.

"Stick with me, but this may work out." Aleks said as the teams huddled together to discuss the plan Aleks had in mind.

 **Ten minutes later.**

Nigel stood there unceremoniously. He was ready to begin this cross-country guerrilla war with the Covenant.

"When were done with this, you better be buying me a drink Aleks." Nigel shouted to Aleks, who was standing a few yards in front of him.

Both teams were standing in the middle of an interstate highway that went through the city, hoping to get the attention of the Covenant.

"When we are done, I'm buying the entire team all of the drinks for a night, and I am serious." Aleks responded.

"Well in that case, I'm going to get myself wasted after this." Nigel declared.

"Me too. I will also tell you all of the stories of my people." Uduak declared as well.

"And to that I will listen and drink." Aleks responded.

The entire team laughed.

"I only wished you could spend the money on my drinking instead on my new farm." Deven piped.

"Well, I can't do that, but I give you a good recommendation on your behalf as a farmer." Aleks mused with Deven.

"And maybe we can talk about our future." Emilie spoke over their private channel.

Aleks responded by turning to face her, and flashed an acknowledgment signal through their chat. She felt a lot of warmth flow through her body, and she felt excited to hopefully start something with him.

 _RUMBLE..._

Everyone looked towards a thunderstorm that was brewing in the East.

"Seems like it's going to be a big one." Nigel called out.

No one had time to respond when a phantom appeared in the air, and landed about half a kilometer away from them down the road.

Another flew over towards the same direction, and then another.

It didn't take long for the first wave of Covenant troops to reach the Spartan's position.

However, instead of immediately engaging the enemy, they all threw up their hands, which surprised the enemy.

It was at this point Aleks started the plan.

"Hey, I demand to see your commanding officer. I have a proposal to offer him." Aleks shouted at no one in particular, hoping that one of the Elites would contact their commanding officer.

When it became apparent that none of the Elites understood what he said, he had Emilie said the same thing again, but in Sangheili. One of the Elite majors grunted something in reply, and fell back to the phantoms behind the Covenant forces.

"He said wait a minute." Emilie whispered to him through the battle-com.

Aleks smiled to himself. This is actually working.

The teams continued standing there, arms in the air, in silence.

After a wait, another phantom flew over them and landed right in front of the group.

It didn't take long for the group to realize who was the cargo that arrived.

A squad of Spec Ops Sangheili, clad in their bright red armor disembarked the ship and formed two lines on each side of the entry way. Following them were six Ultra Elites, clad in their bright white armor. Probably just polished for this occasion, Aleks thought to himself. After them, a giant Brute of a creature lumbered out. He donned crimson and black armor, and carried a rather large hammer. Aleks identified him as a Brute Chieftain. A dangerous threat, Aleks noted to himself. Finally, after the poesy left the phantom, a final Elite, clad in a very shining gold armor that distinguished it as a the rank of General, disembarked.

"Whom is the Demon that offered a proposal to me?" the General boasted in perfect English, looking at the group of ten Spartans in front of me.

Aleks stepped forward, showing no pride, but no embarrassment, like he was just doing his job.

"Tis' me." he replied.

"Enlighten me with this proposal of yours. I doubt it would change the current situation of you and your friends." the Elite responded.

Aleks knew that these next few exchanges will mean the different between life and death for the regiment in the stadium. For the first time in a while, he will have to think of his words carefully.

"Tell me, good General, do you hunt?" Aleks inquired.

The General placed his hand on his chin, or the equivalent of it, "Well... I used to be an avid hunter when I was in my youth."

"I'm guessing you went after some pretty big game back then."

"Yes..." the General sighed, remembering the days when he didn't have to look over an entire battalion of troops, "We would spend days, even weeks, tracking down the biggest animals of my family's realm, and we would come back the most famous warriors of the clan."

"Your parents must've been proud of you. Must've been real fun, too." Aleks added.

The General started thinking deeper, "Yes..."

Aleks had him where he wanted, "What if I could bring that back to you one more time before the end of this war?"

The General looked up, "You have peaked my interest."

Aleks opened up his arms in an offering, "Well... you have ten Demons in front of you. I propose you can have a hunt with your battalion, and we be your prey. Does this seem like a fair hunt?"

The General started contemplating. After a while in deep thought, the Brute started talking to him. Something about the Prophets, and loyalty towards their Great Journey, Emilie told Aleks.

"I no longer care about what the prophets desire." the General barked to his subordinate, not knowing that he was still in English, "They were whom started this bloody conflict. Having us sacrifice the bloods of our brothers for many years in vain for random artifacts of the so-called 'gods.'" The Brute merely growled at that statement.

The General turned to Aleks, "You have me convinced Demon. How long do you need to prepare for our little skirmish that you call a hunt?"

"As long as it takes for your troops to prepare to track us down for long distances." Aleks bounced back.

The General made what was the equivalent of a smile for a Sangheili. "Then I will give you no more then ten minutes." he then began to rub his hands together, "This will be a hunt to stand for the rest of time. One for my clan to remember so long as it lives."

He turned around and boarded the phantom, with his poesy in tow, and proceeded to leave the Spartans. The rest of the Covenant forces did the same.

Aleks motioned for the Spartans to start moving away from the city.

"This is Omega one," Aleks said over the com, using the team name for once, "Operation Zaroff is a foot."

 **Ten minutes later.**

Aleks looked over the barricade that was hastily set up. It consisted of a few cars that were abandoned on the highway they took. Aleks, Emilie, and Deven using his mounted machine gun. A few hundred meters behind them, Nigel was laying prone on top of a highway overpass, giving the team support. A hundred meters ahead of the barricade, Uduak was crouched behind another car.

Operation Zaroff was a basic, yet cunning plan. After the General agreed to this 'hunt', both Spartan teams agreed to run West of Cleveland, drawing the assault force away by leaving tracks. Team Omicron would head south towards Columbus, where another regiment was stationed, and a second regiment was being sent to reinforce them. Aleks' team, Team Omega, would head West towards Detroit, where two regiments were already stationed. By doing this, they hoped to separate the half a battalion into two quarters of a battalion. Along the way were supply drops to help the Spartans replenish their ammunition, and explosives.

The current plan of Omega Team was to utilize basic hit and run tactics to wear down the enemy force. From their current location, Aleks felt like they could do a good job of holding off the enemy for a while, but they were prepared to retreat to another position, and setup another defensible position. They were planning on doing this all the way to Detroit.

From far away, Aleks could make out the faint silhouettes of Covenant forces. It seemed like a basic wave of Covenant infantry. Grunts, Jackals, Skirmishers, and Elite Minors all lead by Elite Majors.

As they started to get closer to the trap they had set out, Aleks started prioritizing targets.

"Nigel, I want you taking out leaders. Send the Grunts retreating. Uduak, wait until they are on top of you to attack. Emilie, you and I are going to take out everything not Elite Majors or Grunts. Deven, spray and pray." Aleks ordered.

The team said their affirmations.

Aleks watched as the Covenant got closer to their trap. Then, they were in the trap.

"Blasting." Aleks announced.

 _BOOM!_

The five or so squads of Covenant didn't have time to realize that they were in a trap when the explosives that lined the side of the road exploded in a massive fiery ball, turning all of the troops into flaming bits.

Then silence.

It lasted for a few seconds until...

 _THWANG!_

A needle struck beside Aleks. Then a plasma ball. More and more shots filled the air as Covenant troops started firing at what they thought was their position. They were right.

Immediately, Omega started firing back. Aleks looking over the cars, and taking trained shots at whatever targets decided to take a shot at the team. Emilie followed his example, along with Deven, who was just firing away at the mass of infantry trying to push towards their position.

"Deven, try firing in short bursts until there is a general rout. Unleash hell when that happens." Aleks hollered at Deven overtop the noise of the ensuing battle.

"Copy that." Deven hollered back, and started firing in bursts.

"Uduak, maintain your position. We'll tell you when to jump them. Be patient in the meantime."

"Yeah..." Uduak sighed, he really wished he could be firing away at the enemy, helping his friends.

"Nigel, some sniper fire would be most appreciated." Aleks shouted.

"I'm working on it mate." Nigel shouted back through the coms.

Nigel laid on the highway overpass. He had just arrived, and started looking through the scope of his rifle. He quickly trained the scope on an unfortunate Elite major, and ended his life with a simple pull of the trigger.

Nigel then looked beyond the scope, and saw the dark clouds, the streaks of rain, and the lightning just starting to creep over the city of Cleveland.

If Nigel remembered the few books and movies he enjoyed, thunderstorms weren't good things.

They were never good things.

 **Later...**

Aleks lost track of how many kills the team have been racking up, but his quick estimations have been in the hundreds, specifically around 500. This meant that they were through approximately through a third of the force that was dispatched after them. He knew that these next two-thirds wouldn't be anywhere as easy as the first third.

The two definite things that Aleks could keep track with was how long their engagement was going on for, and the current weather.

They have been fighting for two hours. Aleks never noticed it until he checked the clock, which stated that it was 2200 hours. A full two hours after the ultimatum was made with the General of the Covenant forces. Aleks really didn't notice the time change. He noticed that it got darker, and turned on his night vision on his HUD, but didn't give any greater notice.

Immediately, he thought about the sayings _time flies when you are having fun_ , and _if you are doing what you love, you won't work a day in your life_. He hoped that these two sayings didn't mean that he enjoyed his job as a super soldier. It isn't the fame that he hated. It wasn't the over-the-top, controversial augmentations that he was given as a child, to which he was given a greater share of than his colleagues. It was all of the killing he did, and the death he saw that upsetted him. He was tired, and just wanted to be done, but everyday was just a new battle. He was afraid that over the course of this decades long war, he had lost his humanity.

"COMMANDER, THE ENEMY ARE STARTING TO CLOSE ON UDUAK!" Emilie shouted at Aleks.

He snapped out of his train of thought. He immediately remembered where he was. It was raining, pouring actually. He was west of Cleveland, still huddled behind a barrier of cars hoping that the day just end. They have been in the same position since they arrived earlier.

Aleks leaned against the car, and started peaking over the barrier. The recent exchanges have been very heavy, and Aleks didn't want to try his luck any more.

He saw a column slowing making its way towards Uduaks position, a few hundred meters ahead of them.

"Uduak. On my mark, take out as many as you can, then proceed to make your way towards my position. Deven, start packing up. I beginning to think we've overstayed our welcome." Aleks announced over the battle-net.

He waited as he saw the column arrive at Uduak's position.

"GO!"

Uduak sprang out of cover, and started firing his shotgun into the massed group in front of him, taking out two to three enemies at a time. After he was satisfied with his progress, Uduak started bolting towards Aleks position.

When he arrived, Aleks motioned for Deven to start moving.

"We'll meet you at the next supply drop." Aleks shouted back towards Deven.

Deven simply nodded as he started lumbering Westward, the stationary three giving him covering fire.

After Deven made some progress towards the next rendezvous point, a lull began in the battle.

"Seems like a good time to leave." Aleks suggested to his colleagues.

They agreed.

"Nigel. Cover us. We're falling back." Aleks ordered.

"Got ya covered mate." the Australian voice responded.

The three turned around, and started jogging in the same direction as Deven just recently went. It was at this point a thought popped into Aleks' head.

"Was it just me, or were there a lot more Brutes than expected?" Aleks asked.

"Yeah. Towards the end there they seemed to be replacing a lot of the Elites as leaders of squads." Emilie said.

"There was that particularly nasty lookin bugger with the General too. Even questioned the choice of the General, which surprised me." Nigel piped in.

"Yeah. Just for the record, no one goes about trying to take that Chieftain on all by themselves. It's suicide." Aleks said.

The rest of the run was filled with nothing but silence, and rain.


	5. Chapter 4

Good day ladies and gentlemen! I'm sorry that I took a long time to get to posting this next set of chapters, but I did it! If you're looking for an excuse, college requires a lot of work, but I haven't forgotten about this project! I will try my hardest to get the next arc out in due time. Thank you so much for your patience, and I hope this comes to be an acceptable reward. Please remember to comment and review. Enough babbling, onto the story.

* * *

Chapter 4

 **Unknown Time**

 **Unknown Location**

 **Unknown Personnel**

In a tower, above the crowded streets of a rather crowded planet, a meeting between the greatest warriors of good of another galaxy was underway. They convened on the grounds of contact with alien life. It was rather ironic, considering that the attendants of this meeting came from a very diverse species group.

"So, if I read this report correctly, you said ten ships of an unknown origin just came out of nowhere, looked at your fleet, and left?" said a dark, bald human, who was conducting the meeting.

"Yes, Master Windu. They showed up over here," said another human, pointing at a section of a hologram where a recreation of this event was being portrayed, "turned around and left." The group of ten blockish looking ships followed what he said. The ships turned around, then flashed in a little explosion of white, and disappeared from the hologram, leaving the planet and the few ships stationed there all by themselves.

"Can you show me their flagship?" said another human who sported a mustache, and a beard. He was there with his former padawan when it happened and wanted to learn as much as he could.

"Yes Obi-Wan." The Knight responded, "Well... We couldn't exactly figure out which ship was the flagship, but we believe that this was their flagship." a holographic image of a ship was displayed, rotating so that all of the members could see it.

"Interesting design." stated a Cerean man identified as Ki-Adi-Mundi.

"Obviously designed for a war-like nature." noted another man, Plo-Koon.

"We believe it was. It measures around the same length as our flagships." Anakin stated. "Yet, our scans and analysis show that there isn't any shielding, instead using a very thick armor, made of a very dense metal."

"That is a very specific comment to be making there, Anakin." Kit Fisto pointed out.

"We managed to salvage some material that broke off their ship." Anakin said.

A short green alien, know to all of them as Yoda leaned forward and started pointing at the image. "Damage there is. A recent battle, they must have come from."

Many of the members expressed their understanding in a collective "ah."

"Good thing their enemies didn't follow them." Obi-Wan stated. "Whatever caused damage to that ship," pointing at the ship, "would've probably given us a much harder time."

Everyone nodded in agreement.

"We also got a scan of the ship and can identify personnel." Anakin stated.

"How many were aboard?" Windu asked.

Instantly, green dots appeared in the ship. Most of them were lined up in the center in a series two lines, spanning what was thought of as five decks. A handful were in the front of the ship, or at least what was perceived to be the front of the ship. "Scans indicated that there were around 5,000 people onboard."

A few people started pointing towards the front, whispering something about that possibly being the bridge.

Mace Windu continued studying the ship. It rotated in such a way that the name of the ship, the _Feeling Lucky_ , caught his eye.

"The _Feeling Lucky_..." Mace Windu said to himself, thinking about those words.

"What weapons do they field?" Windu asked again.

"Typically, I don't know what weapons they field until I'm already in battle with them." Anakin said.

"Knowing you, that comes of no surprise." Obi-Wan joked with him.

Many of the members there got a good chuckle at that.

"Aligned with anyone, are they?" Yoda asked.

"We don't think they are," Anakin started, to which many people caught a breath. Having to contend with another faction in this war, which was starting to drag out longer that was necessary, would've been a killer blow to the Republic.

However, Anakin continued, "However, recent analysis of the scan has shown a strange anomaly on the ship."

A red dot appeared in the bridge.

"Is it a droid?" Plo-Koon inquired.

"It isn't exactly a droid. Our scans would've identified it as such. What the scan said was that it was a pile a metal and circuitry with sentience." Anakin said.

"And considering it is in the bridge, we can assume it has some sort of authority, or leadership." Mundi noted.

"Is it General Grevious?" Windu asked.

"The rest of the crew have been analyzed as being human." Anakin piped in.

"Why would Grevious be the only droid on a Federation ship, especially operated by humans?" Obi-Wan inquired.

Many in the room nodded again at that thought.

Then silence followed.

"Do you think they will come back?" Windu asked, breaking the silence.

"Uncertain, that is." Yoda responded, "If they come back, a delegation, we must send."

Mace Windu nodded, "Obi-Wan, and Skywalker. I will leave this task to you. If we ever receive word that their return, we will recall you back to Coruscant, and send you out on a different ship."

"Why not have us head there with our fleets directly? Wouldn't it be quicker?" Anakin questioned.

"We do not want to display a show of force to them. They could think of it as a military response to an invasion, and the last thing we need is another enemy." Ki-Adi-Mundi answered.

"Should we send a senator with them as well?" Plo-Koon asked.

"That's a good idea. We will contact the Chancellor and see if he will dispatch one if the situation comes up." said Windu.

"And what about this pseudo droid?" Obi-Wan asked.

The entire room went silent. While most issues brought up in meetings were answered with experiences from the past, there was no rhetoric to go off of for this event.

Mace Windu spoke up after a few seconds, "Any attack by these droids will be considered an attack by the Confederacy, therefore, these people would be allies of the CIS, and subsequently, our enemies."

That statement weighed heavily on the shoulders of the people of the room.

"This meeting is adjourned." Mace Windu concluded.

Many of the members there immediately got up and started attending to their own schedules for the day, Mace on the other hand just stared at the red dot on the image, hoping that that red dot doesn't start another war between the Republic and this new faction.

 **November 17** **th** **, 2552 03:59:48**

 **East of Sandusky, Ohio, United States of America, United Republic of North America, Earth**

 **Cmdr. Aleksander Nevsky**

"Wakey, wakey Commander. I spy with my little eyes another column of Covenant making its way towards us." Nigel piped in.

Aleks rolled off of his back, onto his stomach, and into the mud. It had been raining for five hours. Nothing but pouring rain. The thunder and lightning that was demanding the attention of everyone a few hours earlier eerily stopped. Just like the enemy.

The team was located a few tens of miles further west from Cleveland. They continued their original plan of holding out until being forced to fall back, setting up another position to defend from, and starting the entire cycle again. So far, they had to move three times since the battle started. Each time running with all of their ammunition being practically exhausted. The team, on the other hand, weren't exhausted, albeit this was by far the worst conditions they had to fight in.

"I wasn't sleeping Nigel, just resting while I don't have to worry about Brutes dumping themselves all over our position." Aleks said to Nigel.

They have been fighting for eight hours nonstop, and never did it seem like the enemy numbers decreased. While they were initially fighting the basic Covenant infantry of Grunts, Jackals, Skirmishers, and Elites with the occasional Hunter pair and Brute, they were currently fighting Brutes only. It seemed like they had exhausted all other species.

"How long till this is over?" Deven asked from his foxhole.

They were still on the same highway they started out on. They decided to change something up this go around. They found a spot where a crater was blown in the road. Uduak and Deven were currently standing in a makeshift trench towards the edge of the crater. Emilie was hiding behind the typical car barricade, which was situated behind the crater. Aleks was in a foxhole on top of a knoll away from the highway, giving him a clear flanking shot on those who decided to advance on the position. Nigel was still on overwatch a few miles back behind the main line.

"I don't know Deven. From what I can tell, we've killed about 2,000 Covenant. We were supposed to be done around the 1,500 mark. That was our fair share with Team Omicron." Aleks responded, "I'm sorry that this is going on way longer than anticipated, but we have a job to complete... On that bombshell, how are you guys holding up?"

"Not too bad." Emilie responded.

"Never been better." said Uduak.

"Low on ammo, but I can hold out." Deven annouced.

"Enjoying the view Commander." Nigel boasted.

"Oh, fuck you." Deven sighed through the Battle-Net.

"How are you doing Commander?" Emilie asked.

"Besides being covered in mud, I'll live. How's the communication with command going?" Aleks responded.

"This storm must be an electrical one because I'm getting nothing." Emilie said glumly.

"But there's no lightning. How could it be an electrical storm?" Nigel asked.

He never got an answer.

"Enemies in sight Commander." Emilie piped in.

Aleks eyed another column of Brutes making their way down the highway. They seemed to be trained on the crater, accurately guessing the location of another ambush, but there was something different about this column's advance. They continued to have their guns trained on the crater, but they just continued advancing at a steady pace. It seemed that they were trying to keep in line with something else.

Aleks immediately snapped his vision away from the main column. The column was bait to pull him and his team out and be attacked by what?

"Hold your fire, something's up." Aleks immediately called over the Net. He didn't want to take a chance with this.

"Be quick. They're about a click out and closing." said Emilie.

Aleks started looking beyond the column, in front of the column, to the side of the column, looking for something. He had an idea what to look for. He recalled from his military history that late in the Great War, known to most as the First World War, troops would no longer charge across the no man's land that separated trenches like madmen, instead walking with intent and purpose. The Brutes were acting in such a manner, so he analyzed this matter according. The British fought this way particularly for two reasons. One was the development of the creeping barrage tactic, where artillery would fire shells such that they would land in front of friendly troops and would move forward with the advancing troops. Considering that there wasn't artillery being fired already, that couldn't be it. The other reason was the British invented the tank and would have troops march alongside them so that they could receive protection from them.

Realizing this, Aleks started looking at the fields next to the advancing enemy. To Aleks' surprise, he saw multiple rows of corn being knocked over. Looking through the scope of his rifle, he identified scores of Choppers meandering their way through the cornfield that was off of the side of the highway.

"Hey guys, heads up. We got enemy support vehicles moving up on the right flank. Nigel, can you identify if they are trying to flank us on the left flank." Aleks informed the team.

"I don't see anything. What's the plan with these jockeys making their way to our sides?" Nigel asked.

Aleks started thinking. More like computing. Obviously, the best means of achieving victory was to separate the vehicles from the troops. Most simulations that started out that way ended in a success. _But how are we going to pull the choopers away without attracting the column of infantry with them?_ We can try shooting some of the drivers and hope that the infantry doesn't come charging with them. _Come on man, you that in these situations there is no try and hope. Remember the last time you tried and hoped, you ended up in a completely different galaxy!_ So how can we guarantee that only the Choppers attack us? _How about shooting the furthest one so that only the Chopper column knows that they are under attack?_ That would only buy us some time, but all other simulations are suicidal, or rely too much on the enemy forces being sloppy, and we can't assume that. Let's go with that.

For what seemed like an eternity for Aleks, was really only a second for everyone else. They were all surprised when he came up with the answer for a very difficult decision in almost an instant.

"Do we have any spare explosives?" Aleks asked Deven.

"No, used it in that last stunt you pulled, and they didn't give us any explosives in this last supply package." Deven replied.

Aleks remembered that stupid, yet successful idea. The used up a good chunk of explosives, and a recent supply drop to lure the Covenant underneath an overpass and collapse it on them. Despite the brutal nature of it, it worked, and no bullets had to be spent on those few scores of poor souls.

"900 meters away." Emilie stated, not helping ease the tension a bit. To make matters worse, it rained even harder.

"Okay gang, here's the plan. Nigel, you and I are going to provoke the Choppers into charging the crater. When they arrive, everyone will have at them. Hopefully, the Choppers will pull away far enough from the column to allow us to finish them, and then concentrate on the foot soldiers. If they don't separate far enough, try to disable as many Choppers as you can, and fall back. At that point Nigel, you're our support." Aleks informed them.

He then trained his gun on the head of the Brute driving next to the furthest chooper.

"Nigel you have the farthest Chopper, and I'll take the second farthest. On my mark." Aleks said to Nigel.

"Ready." Nigel whispered to Aleks.

"Fire."

Two shots rang out into the stormy morning, followed by the drivers of two Choppers falling off of their vehicles into the mud. As expected, the entire motorcade roared their engines, and started charging their positions, throwing mud all over the place.

The infantry, to Aleks' dismay, roared into the morning, and started running after the vehicle column. This decreased the time the team could concentrate on the Choppers.

Nigel, and Aleks continued to pour fire on the advancing vehicles, but the amount of fire just wasn't enough.

The Choppers started turning towards the crater, in anticipation for a successful flanking maneuver. However, they were surprised when they were met with a hail of bullets coming from the position. Thank goodness that the team was informed about the maneuver. It would've been a disaster if they were surprised.

Aleks immediately notice the commander of the column, a Jiralhanae Major, pull away from the main attack, which was now starting to falter, with four other Choppers to pursue sniper fire from the small knoll next to highway where Aleks was situated.

Aleks fired at one of the rear Choppers, taking the driver out, and did the same with the driver of the other rear-most Chopper. When the Choppers started climbing the knoll, Aleks started sprinting towards the Major's Chopper. As the Major's Chopper started cresting the knoll, he only got a chance to see the feet of the sniper for he jumped at the driver feet first. There was a sickening _CRACK_ as the feet connected with the head of the Brute, breaking his spinal cord. Aleks simply left the lifeless corpse to fall off of the Chopper.

Aleks took advantage of this to commandeer the vehicle. He turned it to face a second Chopper that crested the knoll. To save time, Aleks forced himself down, tilting the cannons upward, and pulled the trigger with most of his might. If he used all of his might, he could've broke it. The 35mm cannons instantly fired into the sky, but as the chassis of the Chopper started balancing itself again, another Chopper crested the knoll. As this Brute crested, he only got to saw the cannons lower themselves to their natural level, which allowed a shot to be fired at the head of the driver. The shot went right through his eye, killing him instantly. It didn't take long for the fifth driver of the party to crest the knoll Aleks was on. Aleks immediately charged the Chopper, driving the bladed chassis of his Chopper into the bladed chassis of the other, stopping them both in their tracks. Aleks pulled his sidearm off of his thigh and fired off six rounds into the head of the driver, ending the last of the detachment sent after him. Aleks hightailed to the rest of his team afterward.

"So what do we do now?" Uduak asked Aleks as he pulled beside the crater in his newly acquired vehicle. The rest of the team managed to finish the rest of the Choppers.

Aleks took stock of the situation. Their position was compromised, and the enemy knew exactly where they were. Their enemy comprised of an unknown number of the Jiralhanae species, which were one of the most formidable species the Covenant could field, and were now 500 meters away, and closing rather quickly. Omega Team was low on ammo, had no explosives in which they could use to take out a lot of Brutes at once, or destroy any vehicles that decided to show up. The only thing they had an abundance of was enemies, room in which they could run away from them, supply drops, and Choppers, which Aleks was beginning to worry that the rest of the Brutes would commandeer them from their dead drivers and pursue the team. The answer was rather obvious.

Again, what seemed like an eternity for Aleks to think the situation through, was only a second to the others.

"Everyone, grab yourselves a Chopper, destroy the rest, and fall back." Aleks ordered the group, "Nigel, try to take out as many as possible before we reach your position."

"Are you going to bring a Chopper for me?" Nigel asked.

"No can do. Can't drag a spare one along. Looks like you're going to be piggyback riding with someone." Deven answered, destroying another Chopper with his mounted machine gun.

"Well, looks like I'm going to piggyback riding with a Miss Emilie Busch." Nigel amused himself.

"In your dreams." Emilie retorted.

"Already had them." The Aussie mused back.

Emilie simply scoffed at the incredible statement, and continued destroying a Chopper, this time with a renewed vigor. Aleks made a note to himself to have a stern talk with Nigel about that last statement. This wasn't the first time this sort of thing happened between Nigel and Emilie.

"That's all of them Commander." Emilie said after a few minutes of nothing but shooting Choppers.

"Alright guys, mount up, and roll out." Aleks announced to the group. They all did exactly as they said, shouldering their weapons, and hopping into one of the Choppers they saved for their escape. Deven had a little bit of a hard time trying to balance his machine gun on top of his Chopper but got it to work. As the mob of Brutes got within firing distance of the Spartans, Omega Team started to fall back with great haste.

As they fell back, occasionally turning around to fire into the mob following them, Aleks couldn't help but look off towards the Southwest. In that direction was a small town called Clyde, where a very old lady lives. If only I was here to visit her, Aleks thought to himself. In reality, she would actually join them in fighting the Covenant, and give the Covenant a hard time too.

Aleks saw the overpass that Nigel was currently using as his nest.

"Alright Nigel, time to come down. I'm coming to pick you up." Aleks said over the Net.

"Got it boss. Coming down." Nigel responded.

Aleks saw the sandy colored Spartan get up from his prone position and make his way to the ledge of the overpass. He then got up on the ledge to jump down onto the road.

 _CLAP! BOOM!_

A sudden, bright, white light bothered Aleks' view for a split second, then he realized that Nigel was struck by lightning, immediately overloading his shields, and breaking them.

The rest of the team watched in horror as their teammate, whose armor seized up from the extreme electrical current it had just received, simply fall forward off of the overpass.

Aleks slammed on the accelerator of the Chopper, trying to catch his teammate as he fell sixteen feet head first.

"NIGEL!" was all Aleks got to say to him as he watched the body of one of his teammates, his friend, fall ever closer towards the ground.

 _CRACK!_

Aleks saw the head connect with the asphalt, then buckle in a way he only thought imaginable, a way he could only describe as being grotesque, as the entire weight of the Mjolnir armor fell on the head of its owner. The rest of the body simply fell over, lifeless.

Aleks jumped off of the Chopper and turned over the armor. No response. He pressed his pointer and middle fingers against the neck. He felt bumps against his fingers going at a fast rate, then they slowed down, then they stopped.

Aleks stood up, staring at the polarized visor of the armor. _Was he screaming before he died, seeing his impending doom?_ Aleks quickly asked himself. It didn't matter. Laying here in front of the entirety of Team Omega was one of their own.

Dead.

The only thing nature had to say for itself for causing the demise of a Spartan was the crashes and booms of lightning and thunder that was mysteriously missing from the electrical storm.


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

 **November 17** **th** **, 2552 05:02:22**

 **South of Sandusky Bay, Ohio, United States of America, United Republic of North America, Earth**

 **Cmdr. Aleksander Nevsky**

Four Choppers drove along the highway in complete silence. The only sound the filled the air was the sound of a rain shower. The storm had let up a little bit after Nigel died. None of the team had said anything since the death of Nigel. They still couldn't believe he was dead. After he fell from the overpass and broke his neck, they didn't have enough time to prepare his body for transport, so they left it behind.

They continued falling back, turning around occasionally to fire a handful of bursts from their vehicles into the mob of Brutes charging them down.

"Emilie, can you get in contact with command?" Aleks asked, his voice heavy from the loss of a friend.

"This is the fifth time you asked in the past hour, and again no." Emilie responded, her voice also heavy from the death of a teammate.

The small convoy stopped. They haven't stopped running, and now they are all tired. Aleks understood this. He knew that they could continue this pace forever if needed, but they were all emotionally exhausted from the death of a teammate. He completely understood it, since he had experienced the loss of a friend when they were in training to become Spartans. He remembered a girl that always tried making advances on him, which always got her in trouble with Sergeant Mendez, since they would always interfere with training simulations. Something about making Emilie jealous really got her in trouble.

Aleks chuckled to himself as he remembered fighting alongside her in one of those training sessions.

"Wait a minute. We aren't on the same team. Why are you fighting with me?" Aleks pictured his younger self ask.

"Why does it matter dummy?" She joked back, "Besides this is a lot more fun than what they are having us do already."

Aleks chuckled. They were only fourteen, and yet she was already trying to fight back against the system. He then remembered that the day after that, the entire class was operated on. Biological augmentations. He remembered the pain associated with it, but there was an emotional pain he received after as he saw who made it through the process.

She died during the procedure.

Many people said it was at this point Aleks started acting less human. A more down to earth personality, always driving himself and his teammates to perfection. He rarely talked. Instead, he focused on reading reports from the war with the Covenant which was going on at the time. He was particularly interested in the effectiveness of Spartan Blue Team, and their leader, John-117.

After getting used to the augmentations, Aleks was recalled for a second operation. No one knew what this surgery entailed, but after this second surgery, many of the second class doubted as to whether there was any shred of humanity left in him. Whenever Aleks did something, he did it with such incredible efficiency that many considered it inhuman, even for a Spartan. It came as no surprise when Aleks graduated top of the class by a mile.

"Where's our next supply crate?" Aleks finally said, snapping back to reality.

"Looks like they wanted us to take the scenic route. The closest one is in a small town to the north called Port Clinton." Emilie informed him.

"I know where that is. Follow me." Aleks said to his team, his spirits seemingly getting higher.

The team continued. This time heading northward. Aleks knew that there was a bridge that crossed the Sandusky Bay into Port Clinton, hopefully it hadn't been destroyed.

As the team started approaching the bridge to cross the bay, another thing came into view.

Two Scarabs guarding the bridge.

Thankfully, Aleks thought to himself, one was on this bank, and the other was on the other bank. The bridge was also fully intact. Maybe this day was starting to look

"Emilie and Uduak, take the far one. Deven and I will take this one." Aleks shouted to the team.

Two Choppers pulled off from the group and started crossing the bridge, driving underneath the Scarab in the process. Aleks and Deven started charging their Scarab down, who in response started backing up from its current position in front of the bridge.

Aleks spied a rather large boulder sticking out of the ground.

"Deven, see that boulder?"

"Yeah."

"Aim your Chopper at it and be prepared to jump."

The two Spartans swung their Choppers to the side, avoid a massive bolt of plasma that was sent from the main cannon of the Scarab.

As they got closer, the defensive turrets stationed on top of the mammoth machine started opening up on the Spartans. In response, Aleks and Deven started making zigzag patterns to avoid the fire.

Deven saw the boulder fast approaching, so he increased the speed, hoping it can help him board the Scarab.

When Deven hit the boulder, he accidentally struck the boulder in such a way that he got the entire chassis stuck between the boulder and the soggy ground beneath it. This didn't stop Deven and his gear from flying off of his vehicle. Thankfully, he landed underneath the Scarab.

"It didn't work for me Aleks, it's all up to you." Deven communicated to Aleks.

Aleks started flooring the Chopper, hoping to get results better than Deven. Aleks noticed that the stuck Chopper made a pretty decent ramp to drive off of.

Aleks got closer to the makeshift ramp, making sure that his trajectory would give him the best possibility of making it onto the Scarab.

 _BAM!_

Aleks felt a himself jolt as the Chopper collided onto the other Chopper.

Thankfully, his idea worked. The teeth of the wheels of the Chopper started chewing into the chassis of the other and allowed the Chopper to propel itself into the air.

Aleks realized that it still wasn't enough.

After making a quick check that he had everything he needed, his stood on the chassis of the Chopper while mid-flight and jumped onto the Scarab. While the Chopper merely collided with the armored side of the Scarab, the crew riding the Scarab was shocked when a Demon landed on the platform.

Aleks snapped the gun onto the head of the Jackal operating a turret.

 _BOOM!_

He then turned to towards two more Jackals that started advancing on him.

 _BOOM! BOOM!_

A Brute came running from the Command Post, shouting at the top of his voice, swinging his mauler around. The Brute didn't expect the short Demon to grab his arm, and with a surprising amount of force, shoved the Brute off of the Scarab.

"Brute coming your ways." Aleks informed Deven.

Underneath the Scarab, Deven was already at work getting rid of any forces that decided to hop down to confront him.

He had just finished a second squad of Grunts when Aleks alerted him.

Hearing a thud as something hit the ground, Deven swung around, saw the Brute as he tried getting back up. He didn't get anywhere as Deven opened up on him with his machine gun, riddling the Brute with bullet holes.

"Got him. How are things going your way?" Deven asked.

"Alright, heading into the belly of the beast." Aleks responded.

Aleks started walking down a hallway into the behemoth walker, gun raised, trained at the end of the hall.

As Aleks walked into the command post of the Scarab, only for the hands of a Brute to come out of nowhere, smacking Aleks' DMR out of his hands. Next thing he noticed, he's grappling with a Brute.

"This ends now Demon." The Brute shouted at him.

"Agreed." Aleks retorted back.

In a single move Aleks reached for his knife, which he kept on his right thigh, pulled it out of its sheath, twisted it upwards, and slammed it through the lower jaw and into the skull of the Brute. A single twist of the knife was needed to stop the Brute from fighting back.

He pulled the knife out of the Brute, and let the body collapsed to the deck. The one issue Aleks had with his knife when he used it was he had to clean it afterward. A few more uses later, he will have to sharpen it again.

He took a good look at his knife. It was a Ka-bar style knife, which meant nine inches of straight high carbon steel. Currently, it was covered in blood from its recent victim and Aleks wanted to change that before he sheathed it.

He saw the Brute that tried melee combat with a Spartan, and thought 'aw hell, it's better than nothing,' and wiped the blood off of the blade using the fur of the Brute.

Continuing down through the command post, Aleks stumbled across the core of the Scarab. A blue and purple looking battery that jutted out of the wall surrounded by shielding.

Aleks produced his knife again, slammed it into the core, breaking the shielding instantly, and ripped it back out.

He started jogging to the closest exit, "Okay Deven, time to leave."

Deven say his teammate land on the ground in front of the Scarab and started jogging away. Deven started sprinting to catch up.

As the two of them got a good distance away, they turned around to watch the Scarab collapse on the ground, and its systems die. It fell in such a way that the main 'head' of it turned towards the bridge.

Strange, Aleks thought, I expected something completely different.

Deven was huffing and puffing off to Aleks' side because of his sprint he made to Aleks.

"Don't worry Deven, we'll walk the rest of the way." Aleks said to him, patting Deven on the back.

Deven merely nodded, still trying to catch. Aleks swore that Deven's respiratory augmentations, or the augmentations that affected the respiratory system, must've faltered, or in some way started fading because Deven's endurance has started becoming worse and worse over the past few months. Unfortunately, this started affecting Deven's overall performance levels. When winded, as he currently is, he can't react as effectively, or as quickly, creating some very interesting situations. Most of the time, as the team's heavy weapons expert, he isn't required to do a lot of fast paced maneuvering, mainly having the job of grab something big, and do some shock and awe, or move big things around. Deven never minded it. It was his job, and he rather enjoyed.

The two friends started crossing the bridge.

They casted their gaze across the bay to watch the action that was going on the other bank. Just like Aleks and Deven, Uduak and Emilie were trying to board the Scarab to destroy it from the inside out. However, their initial idea of trying to launch the Choppers onto the Scarab couldn't have been enacted since there wasn't a ramp to launch them off of. Instead, they abandoned one Chopper, choosing to have Emilie drive her Chopper with Uduak standing on the front.

They then watched as the white armor-clad Spartan, with amazing strength, leap off of the Chopper, and slam into the side of the behemoth monster. He obviously stayed on with the use of his knife and proceeded to climb up the side of the Scarab. Aleks and Deven watched with a little bit of amusement as Uduak made it up to the decks, charge into the command post of the Scarab, and send Covenant sprawling out of the innards of the Scarab as they wanted to avoid the wrath of a Spartan. Unfortunately for them, if they left the safety of the Scarab, Emilie was waiting for them on the ground to finish them, and if they stayed, Uduak would most definitely kill them.

After another few seconds, the white clad Spartan hopped out of the Scarab, and ran away from the behemoth as it fell to the ground and exploded into a massive ball of plasma.

Aleks stopped, and turned to face the Scarab they took down, "Hey Deven, should of our Scarab exploded the same way theirs did?" He made a note about how there was still a faint hint of blue pulsing in the gun.

Deven stopped and leaned against an abandoned car, "I mean... huff... it should've... huff... how... huff... did you... huff... go about... huff... destroying the core?"

"I stabbed it with my knife. That should've been enough." Aleks shrugged, noticing that the blue was getting a bit brighter.

"Agreed... huff..." Deven wheezed back, leaning over a bit more.

"Hey, are you guys going to come across soon?" Emilie called to the two over the Battle-Net.

Aleks turned to see a distant Spartan waving her arm at him. He waved back.

"Yeah, one minute. Deven having some issues." Aleks responded.

Moving in on the large Spartan, Aleks looked at visor of the hunched figure, "Deven, how are you feeling?"

The large figure placed a hand on Aleks' shoulder, and looked at him straight in the eyes, "No," and collapsed on the ground.

Frantically, Aleks sat Deven against the car, and removed his helmet. He was having problems breathing and he wheezed with every breath.

"Aleks, what's going on?" A scared Emilie called over the Battle-Net.

"Deven. I believe he is experiencing an asthmatic style attack. Uduak bring the medical kit, it carries the necessary steroids for this thing." Aleks called back.

Aleks, despite of the situation that was arising, found a little humor in the fact the Uduak carried the med-kit. After receiving numerous injuries from his near-suicidal attacks on enemies, Aleks decided that it was easier to just have Uduak carry the med-kit since he was most likely to use it in combat. To his amusement, he was right.

This train of thought ended immediately as Deven and him heard a loud whirring sound off to their side.

They looked at the source of the sound, and realized that over the past few minutes, the Scarabs main gun was charging, hoping to get one last shot off at their enemies.

And it looked like it was about to.

"Shit! Let's go," Aleks shouted at Deven as he slapped Deven's helmet back on, picked him up, and carry him to the side of the bridge, which was quite a distance away.

The whirring got louder and louder.

"Everyone," Aleks shouted over the Battle-Net, "vacate the bridge. The Scarab's gun is going off."

The whirring got louder and louder until it reached a climax.

At the slow rate at which Aleks is carrying me, Deven thought, we're both not going to make it.

Aleks felt two hands grab his armpits.

"There's... huff... no time... huff... Commander." Deven half shouted, half wheezed at Aleks.

"No!" Aleks shouted at his friend, knowing exactly what was going to happen, "Not another!"

"It's been an honor Commander... Thank you." Deven told Aleks.

In one incredible, and final, feat of strength, Deven picked Aleks up, and threw him the remaining ten meters across the bridge, over the railing, and into the bay.

As Aleks fell into the water, he got to watch as the shot rang out of the Scarab's cannon, obliterating the entire bridge, and completely vaporizing anything on top.

Aleks felt a massive jolt as he hit the water and watched as the water started forming across his visor.

"Deven!" Aleks shouted through the Battle-Net.

Nothing responded to him as he started sinking into the bay.

"I'm not picking up anything." Emilie said, her voice in distraught.

Aleks just continued sinking, choosing not to fight against the water. As he landed on the bottom of the bay with one thought on his mind.

I lost another one.


	7. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

 **November 17** **th** **, 2552 05:18:34**

 **The location involved has been deemed Classified until further notice.**

 **The personnel involved have been deemed Classified until further notice.**

A woman sat in the middle of a room, keenly watching the screens in front of her. All of them displayed feeds from helmets from the battlefield. Her eyes were droopy from the hours of staying up to watch the live feed. She never payed any particular interest in the events going on. One of her top agents had dragged her in the room, with the hope of achieving something. So far, he hasn't.

"Impressive, isn't it. Admiral Parangosky." A male voice said from the back of the room.

"I still don't understand why you dragged me in here Robert." Admiral Parangosky responded.

"I mean, take a look Margaret," Robert said, leaping to a screen, "these Spartans are by far the most impressive lot of soldiers I have ever seen."

"They're Spartan-IIs. That's their jobs. To be the best." Margaret responded.

"But they are just better." Robert said with a massive grin on his face.

"These guys," pointing to six screens, one of which no longer displayed a live feed instead just showed static, "spent the last thirteen hours playing cat and mouse with a quarter of a battalion."

Margaret looked at the screens, "Considering they are still fighting, I doubt that they are facing a quarter of a battalion."

"Well... actually... between this team, Team Omega, and the team of Spartans-IIIs, they are currently taking on a little over half a battalion." Robert said, the grin still covering his face.

"Wouldn't the team of Spartan-IIIs been overwhelmed with even a quarter of a battalion? This team in particular isn't renowned for anything." Margaret asked, looking as a file labeled Classified.

"Well..." Robert started, twiddling his thumbs, "we managed to transfer half of the Covenant's forces sent to Team Omicron to Team Omega."

"So, you are telling me that Team Omega is currently handling three-eighths of a battalion?" Margaret asked, a little wide-eyed.

"Yeah," said Robert, "and for taking two casualties, they nearly decimated them."

Margaret's head shot up from the manila folder she was reading, "TWO CASUALITIES!?" she shouted.

"Impressive, isn't it." Robert said, reapplying his massive grin.

"That's two too many. Get in contact with them and get them to withdraw this instant!" Margaret shouted at the man.

"I'm sorry. I don't think that that can happen..." Robert said, still holding his grin, "I jammed their far distance communications."

"HAVE YOU GONE INSANE?!" Margaret shouted at the man, "WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO ACHIEVE BY THIS?!"

The man raised his hands as a show of innocence, "I just want to see the capabilities of these Spartans. I have a plan for one of these Spartans."

He walked up to one of the screens. This one was portrayed the bottom of an ocean, or a bay, and the owner of the live feed as treading across it.

"Do you know who this is?" Robert pointed at the screen, his face full of giddy.

"Yeah. He's one of the best Spartans of the Spartan-II program. Any questions?" Margaret said, looking at another manila folder, this one labeled 'X-ray'. The highest level of classification a file could get.

"I know, but he has to be something completely different. Out of the 2,000 Covenant Team Omega has killed on this mission, he's killed half of them with brutal efficiency." Robert said, focusing on the actions the Spartan was making, "He has also taken the death of his teammates like a champ." In reality, that was far from the truth.

"You also read his report about the _Feeling Lucky's_ adventure into a different galaxy, and how he suggested that an expeditionary force be sent. I think that should be fulfilled." Robert said, his eyes shining at the thought.

"Then I'm guessing all of his credentials will make him an excellent candidate to help lead this expedition?" Margaret said holding the 'X-ray' labeled folder up.

Robert grabbed the folder, and started rummaging through the papers in the folder, muttering to himself.

"Hmmm... an entire folder about him... labeled 'X-ray' too..." he then read one bit of surprising information, even for him.

The corners of his mouth raised to form the biggest smile he showed that night.

"Yes..."

 **November 17** **th** **, 2552 05:38:39**

 **Port Clinton, Ohio, United States of America, United Republic of North America, Earth**

 **Cmdr. Aleksander Nevsky**

Aleks clambered out of the water, his armor completely drenched. The two remaining Spartans under his command rushed to his side and helped him up off the beach.

After being brought some fairways away inland, the three of them turned around to get one last look at the bridge before they headed off.

The entire bridge was in ruin. The first two to three sections were completely vaporized from the plasma; the following three sections of the bridge were destroyed, leaving only the pillars that once supported a bridge; the remaining sections of the bridge were mostly intact, but severely weakened, and started failing in some places. The Scarab that cause the doom of Deven was in a massive ball of flames on the opposite bank. It only had the capacity to take one last shot, before exploding from overworking the core. Unfortunately, that shot rang true.

"No point in staying here forever." Aleks finally said, still maintaining an air of stoicism. The other two knew very well that Aleks was deeply saddened by the death of a second member. They were too.

"To answer the question before you ask Commander," Emilie told Aleks, "I couldn't get in contact with command."

"What difference does it make?" Aleks said, sounding defeated, "Why don't we all take what bullets we have left, and shoot ourselves? The storm is practically over," gesturing to the light rain that occupied the sky, "we should be able to contact command."

"I see no honor in committing suicide." Uduak spoke up, "What are my people going to think when they hear that I, their great warrior, went about killing thousands of Covenant, only to kill himself at the death of their comrade? What will yours think? What will Nigel and Deven think?"

Aleks stopped in his track. Three pictures popped in his mind. A slightly darkened man, who was tall and lanky, yet agile and quick. He pictured a huge white man, with a baby-esque face, who was an incredible powerhouse. Finally, he pictured an old lady, while alone most of the time, still held her own against her enemies. Bugs, foxes, and the HOA. They all had one thing in common. They all encouraged Aleks when he had moments of doubt like this, and they all would've been disappointed if he gave up on them like this. They would've understood his suggestion, and the situation he was in currently.

Aleks straightened his posture, faced Uduak, and clasped his hands on his arms.

"Thank you." Aleks whispered to Uduak, "I'll pull through."

Aleks turned around.

"Right. Where is the next supply drop?" Aleks asked, acting as if the loss of Nigel and Deven didn't happen at all.

"According to my map, it should be in Port Clinton." Emilie said, pointing towards a town to the North.

"Let's go." Aleks said, and broke into a light jog, with Uduak and Emilie in tow.

It only took a few minutes for the team to make it into the town.

The town was completely deserted. No one walking around on the sidewalks, no cars driving on the road. All the stores and houses were closed and boarded up.

"They must've been expecting action to take place here." Uduak said.

"Yeah. They did the right thing. They all probably left when they heard Cleveland was besieged." Aleks said, slowing down into a walk. Inspecting just about everything, the road, the buildings, the roofs, anything to suggest a hint that there are enemy forces around.

"Do you think that the Covenant are already here?" Emilie asked, following Aleks in inspecting the area around them for anything.

"If they understood the basic plan we had set up, and guessed correctly as to where we were heading, then they are already here." Aleks said.

"Then all the more reason to get to this supply drop." Uduak said, breaking into a jog again, this time leaving Emilie and Aleks to follow in tow.

They turned the corner of a street and saw a large cargo shipping container sitting in the middle of the road.

"A little crude, but better than nothing." Aleks said, as they approached the large metal container.

Aleks held a fist in the air. Despite the fact they arrived at the supply drop, Aleks wanted to be sure that the shipping container wasn't tampered with, fearing that his hypothesis about the Covenant was true.

He started inspecting the shipping container. It was a dull white, faded from time. It had several scratches and dings that were ordinary to a typical shipping container. There was one difference though. There was a small, but obvious slash burned into the front of the container. Aleks noticed this, and pointed it out to the others, who acknowledged it. Emilie then pointed towards an object on the ground: a lock, burned into pieces.

Aleks turned back to the container. Under a second investigation, the burn mark was slightly steaming. It was recently burned there. He also took a look at the place where the lock would've been placed to keep the shipping container locked. It was damaged. Severely. Someone tried forcibly entering the container, failed in doing so, and resorted to cutting the lock. Considering that the lock wasn't placed back on the container...

Aleks drew his knife and prepared to entered the container. Emilie and Uduak noticed his actions and prepared for a fight.

Aleks threw the door open.

Immediately, an Elite threw himself at Aleks, shouting at the top of his lungs. He held his arm back to prepare to deal a killing blow to the Spartan with his energy sword.

Fortunately, Aleks was prepared for such an action, and immediately lunged at the Elite. Throwing his arm up into the mouth of the Elite, he sent his knife straight through the head of the Elite, breaking his shields, and killing his instantly.

Pulling his knife out of the carcass, Aleks walked into the container, pushing the dead Elite into the container with him. Uduak and Emilie followed behind him, shutting the container behind them.

Aleks put the body of the Elite down, "Start grabbing what you can. They will most likely be on us in a few."

Everyone started looking in the container hoping to get as much weapons as they can. Unfortunately, the only they could acquire was a few magazines of ammunition for their weapons and their secondaries. There was evidence that there was a lot more the just a few spare bullets.

"Damn. Covenant must've cleaned it out mostly before we arrived." Uduak said, shoving some shells into his shotgun.

"Thankfully, they left something for us to work with." Emilie said, replacing the magazine in her assault rifle with a fresh one, and started putting some stray bullets into a partially empty clip.

Aleks found two magazines of ammo for his DMR and scrounged six bullets for his pistol.

"Wow, that's an Ultra. I heard they got some pretty tough shielding, and you took him out with one stab." Emilie said.

Uduak simply whistled at that.

Aleks looked back at the corpse in the container. Emilie was right. The Elite sported the famous white armor, and the slightly bulbous helmet that designated him as an Ultra. In the quick confrontation that took place a minute ago, Aleks never had the chance to realized that he took down an Ultra in one simple swipe. It was possible, but no one ever tried doing that every time an Ultra arrived on the battlefield.

"Yeah..." Aleks said, getting another look at the corpse, "Seems like we're only up against the Commanding Officers and their staff."

"Well that's a relief." Uduak chuckled.

 _THUNK!_

Everyone looked overhead at where the source came from.

"They're here." Uduak said.

"How are you guys on ammo? Explosives?" Aleks asked the other two.

"I'm good on primary and secondary Commander. Unfortunately, they took away all explosives." Emilie said, pulling her assault rifle off of her back.

"I only have five rounds for my shotgun and lost my pistol." Uduak said, inspecting his only weapon.

Aleks pulled his pistol off of his thigh and handed it to Uduak.

"Here, take mine. I can make do with my DMR." Aleks said, handing Uduak ammo for the pistol.

"We good to go?" Aleks asked.

"I'm ready." Uduak said.

"As ready as you are Commander." Emilie said.

Aleks lifted his boot and landed a kick on the door of the container, breaking it off of its hinges, and sending it flying for a meter or two. Unfortunately, nothing was on the receiving end of the door.

Aleks left the container, and spun around, his rifle trained on the roof. However, his incredibly fast reflexes weren't enough to stop a Brute, who had started jumping down, from knocking his DMR out of his hands with his Mauler. Aleks responded with a powerful punch to the arm of the Brute, breaking the wrist, and forcing the Jiralhanae to drop his weapon.

Emilie and Uduak tried rushing over to help Aleks, but before they could help, two other Brutes arrived behind them, and knocked their weapons out of their hands.

Uduak responded by charging the Brute, pushing the two of them into an alley.

Emilie leaned back to give more room to deliver a kick straight to the jaw of the Brute. It was enough to send it sprawling but wasn't enough to finish it. Emilie wasn't daunted when the Brute turned around, grinning with half of his teeth broken or missing.

Aleks started sparring with Brute. The Brute tried throwing a punch at Aleks' face, and Aleks swung his forearm to block the punch. He responded by throwing his open arm, his left, in a punch at the Brute, throwing his entire body into the punch. The Brute, recovered from his attempt to hit the Spartan, hastily threw his arm in the way to prevent the punch from connecting. Aleks, seizing the opportunity, grabbed the fur of the Brute, and dragged himself towards the Brute. He was got up close, Aleks threw his knee into the chest of the Brute. The Brute staggered backwards, dazed. After a second, the Brute got his breath back, and prepared to face his opponent with a renewed anger.

Uduak kept on pushing his target until he rammed the Brute into a wall that closed off the alley. Uduak stepped back and started firing punch after punch into the chest of the Brute, who was just cowering against the wall, covering his face with his arms. After about forty punches, all in the span of about twenty seconds, the Brute decided it had enough. He shoved the Spartan off of him, then he clasped both of his hands together, and threw them in an upward motion against the Spartan, sending him flying across the alley. The Brute felt satisfied with himself, having knocked the helmet of his enemy off, hopefully defeating him. However, he felt like shit, having been slammed into a wall and received forty punches afterward.

It then came as a surprised to the Brute when the Spartan got back up on his feet. This time, it was the Spartan who had a renewed anger. The Brute looked at the face of the Spartan, who showed his anger with his gritted teeth, and a stare that could've killed an Unggoy. The Spartan then grabbed the knife on his shoulder, and ripped it out of its sheath, throwing the sheath off of his arm in the process. The Brute ready himself for a hard fight. He just had to last long enough for his friend to arrive, which he just did.

Emilie and her Brute were circling each other, waiting for the other to make the first move. Emilie knew that she couldn't take him on directly. That first strike she made was lucky. A move made in the moment. She needed a decisive edge in order to defeat this Brute, she thought, but what this decisive advantage was and how she was going to get it was unknown to her. She knew that she could get the upper hand, but until it came to her, she continued to circle with the Brute.

Then she saw it: her assault rifle. If she could get it, then she would have the advantage she knew she could get. Now how to get it, she thought to herself. She had only one obstacle in her way to get it: The Brute himself. She stopped in her tracks as she started racking her brains to find a way to get over to the rifle. She continued thinking to herself, "What the hell are you doing? You're standing around here like an idiot trying to think. If Aleks was here, he would already have an answer at the ready by this point. Wait a minute! What would he do? Well there was that one saying he would have from time to time. What was it again? Oh yeah. 'Whenever an answer seems hard to come by, the most straightforward one sometimes works.' But what would the straightforward answer be here? Well this should work."

Emilie suddenly broke into a sprint. The Brute, poised for an attack of any sort, was prepared for this charge, and sidestepped the Spartan. However, Emilie wasn't aiming to tackle the Brute. She simply ran past him, and dove for her assault rifle. The Brute realized this and started charging after her to cover the distance. Emilie landed on her rifle and fumbled with it for a second. She turned around to see the Brute midair about to land on her. She raised the rifle and squeezed the trigger.

Aleks stared at his Brute with both of his arms held high in anticipation of an attack. He held his knife in his dominant hand, his left, to try and leverage a killing blow, but their sparring, which consisted of simple lunging and feigning, didn't change the position that both of them were in. Something needed to happen to change this fight up, Aleks thought to himself.

 _BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!_

The shots of an assault rifle rang out into the air. Aleks kept his eyes on the Brute to keep him in check.

The Brute looked into the sky, started slamming his fists against his chest, and shouted a deep roar, then charged straight at Aleks.

Or so he thought. The Brute, in his rage, knocked Aleks over, charging after something different.

Aleks turned around and saw Emilie trying to push the body of a dead Brute off of her. He then turned to see what the Brute was charging after: a fallen Spiker.

Aleks quickly got to his feet, and sprinted after the Brute. The Brute at this point got the carbine, and was aiming his sights at the other Spartan.

Aleks, in desperation to save his friend, a very close one, leapt at the firing arm of the Brute, and stabbed him in the wrist.

The Brute roared in pain and in rage. He started swinging around to throw the Spartan off of his arm, but to no avail.

He decided to take care of the Spartan annoying him, and turned to face him. He planted the muzzle of the Spiker directly to its face.

Aleks, noticing a big giant barrel shoved against his face, slapped it out of the way before the user of it could get it firing. Aleks followed through on his swipe and started grappling with the Brute for control of the weapon. They were pretty matched for strength, despite Aleks' augmentations and training. Aleks knew that he can't stay in this position for long.

Aleks came up with a plan, but it relied on the integrity of the gun. It will have to do, Aleks thought to himself. He grabbed one of the blades of the Spiker with both of his hands and started pulling. With help of the Brute pulling the other direction, the blade broke off from the gun, taking a bit of the barrel with it.

The Brute held the gun up to the Spartan once more. Aleks once again swatted the Spiker out of the way and sprang towards the Brute. Aleks thrusted the blade up into the head of the Brute, going through the lower jaw, and through the mouth. Aleks took a step back from the Brute, then sent a kick into the bottom of the blade, pushing it completely into the head of the Brute. The tip of the blade protruded at the top, sending a bit of blood into the air.

He ran over to Emilie as the body fell and helped her take the massive body of the dead Brute off of her.

"Well thank god that's over." Emilie said as Aleks helped her up.

"Yeah. We're almost done." Aleks said, looking around, picking up his DMR, and pulling his knife out of the dead Brute's wrist.

They both snapped their heads at each other, "Uduak!" and broke off into a sprint to the alleyway where Uduak was last seen dragging a Brute into.

They rounded the corner and froze in their tracks.

In the alleyway were two people: A Brute who was passed out on the ground from loss of blood, since he had about twenty or thirty knife wounds; and another Brute who seemed to be struggling with something in his arms.

The Brute turned around to show what is was struggling with: Uduak.

Uduak was looking at them with a battered, yet determined face, as if he believed he could still win the battle, but the Brute had his arm wrapped around his head in a lock. The Spartans noticed deep teeth marks that tore out a good chunk of flesh and fur.

Uduak simply made eye contact with his two remaining friends, and made a massive grin, displaying his teeth, which were covered in blood. If Aleks matched this gesture with a set of words Uduak said in situations like these, they would be 'see you in hell.'

Uduak made one last struggle against the Brute, who then retaliated against the Spartan.

 _CRACK!_

Uduak's head was pulled to the right in a grotesque way as the Brute dropped the body, and let it fell to the ground. Aleks and Emilie watched in devastation as a third member died, and in front of their eyes in Aleks' case.

The Brute didn't realize his mistake until three 7.62x51mm rounds slammed into his head. The Brute fell backwards onto the ground.

Aleks walked up to him. Something erupted in him. Something he had never experienced before.

His fire the remaining twelve rounds into the head of the dead corpse. After finishing off the magazine, he slapped the rifle onto his back, and curb stomped the head of the dead body in anger, caving the skull of the Jiralhanae in significantly.

Aleks lifted his leg and prepared to plant another stomp when he stopped. Angrily, he stomped on the ground next to the head leaving a massive boot print.

"Fuck!" Aleks shouted to no one in particular as he punches his arm halfway through the wall on the side of the alley.

He felt this anger singe through him until a gentle hand was placed on his shoulder. Instantly, the anger seemed to disappear. Aleks simply exhaled and hung his head low.

"I failed them all Emilie. How would they react if they saw me now? How would Mendez react if he saw me now?" Aleks said, his voice starting to falter.

"They would understand, but they would want us to see this through." Emilie said to the much shorter Spartan.

Silence filled the void.

Emilie couldn't think of anything else to do but hug him and start balling.

"I miss them too," she said, her eyes starting to tear up, "but... they want us to continue. To survive despite of all of this."

"Yeah..." Aleks said, recomposing himself, "We must continue on. Enemy reinforcements will be here shortly."

He reloaded his DMR and was about to head out when he stopped.

He kneeled next to his former friend.

"You have served your people well. They will remember your tale for ages." Aleks said.

He reached down and closed the eyelids of the warrior formerly known as Uduak.


	8. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

 **November 17** **th** **, 2552 06:13:34**

 **Scott Point, Catawba Island, Ohio, United States of America, United Republic of North America, Earth**

 **Cmdr. Aleksander Nevsky**

Run. That was all Aleks thought. He didn't from what. He wasn't afraid of what was chasing the two of them. He believed he could take them on. There was something else he was running away from.

"Hey," shouted Emilie, "wait up."

Aleks couldn't help but slow down. After they had left the city limits, heading back east, something came over Aleks, and he just started sprinting away from Port Clinton, leaving Emilie in the dust.

"What's wrong with you?" Emilie asked sternly, grabbing the shoulder of the team leader, "Ever since Nigel died, you have been acting up. You failed to investigate the Scarab after you destroyed it, which cost us the life of Deven. After Uduak died, you completely mutilated that Brute's body, and now you run away from ME? What. Is. Wrong. With. You?"

Aleks winced at every name she mentioned.

She wasn't helping, Aleks thought to himself. Each death of Omega Team was devastating to him. He didn't know exactly why. While the Spartan-II's treated each other in a team like family, they were also well expertise with the death of another. It had to be something else, Aleks concluded to himself, but what?

"I don't know." Aleks said, his helmet keeping his stoic facade.

Another passed through his head. This was the strictest Emilie has ever been with him. Typically, she would never try and get anywhere close to breaking his feelings, but there was something about this situation that must've set them both on edge.

Could be love, Aleks thought to himself. When they were training at a young age, back on Reach, Doctor Halsey addressed Aleks directly. She decided to test him. In her hand she held a journal: Emilie's diary. She informed him that she held a crush on him. One that she still harbors. Doctor Halsey then held up another journal: it was someone else's diary. Doctor Halsey disclosed to Aleks that the entire staff knew that this other girl and he were dating. Doctor Halsey offered a proposal to Aleks: stay with the budding Omega Team, and get in trouble about this relationship, which obstructed some exercises and training; or transfer over to the other squad, and not suffer the wrath of Mendez. Aleks made his decision, and the rest was history.

He now stared at the person who still harbored a love for him. She stared back.

Then she slapped him.

"'I don't know' isn't going to cut it," She said curtly, "Come on! I've seen you take on more Covenant, seen you witness more deaths, and this little mission is tearing you a new one? You can do better!"

Aleks looked back up at her, "I'm trying my best."

"Well try harder!" She shouted at him.

"I can't! Sometimes my emotions overcome me." Aleks pleaded with her, trying to get her to understand what he is feeling. Aleks, for once, felt defeated.

"I'm only human." Aleks sighed.

"I find that hard to believe." Emilie said curtly, turning away from him.

Never had Aleks felt so much anger. For being XO, she proving to be the worst one so far. It wasn't the insult she said that had set him off. It was the fact that she had trusted him to always had the right answer at all times. The entire team expected that of him. They expected perfection from him. He never asked for that, only for their best and then some.

Aleks shook his head. This entire thing was confusing him. He didn't know what to think. He needed something to do to get his mind off of this.

He walked over to Emilie, "Let's try to head to either Columbus, or back to Cleveland. Hopefully we can receive radio signal soon and get an evac."

Before Aleks got a response, a Phantom flew overhead, very close to the ground, stopped just ahead of their position, and prepared to drop troops off.

Five Brutes and one Chieftain dropped to the ground ahead of the two Spartans.

"To the town it is." Aleks remarked.

Emilie and Aleks made an about-face and started making their way to the town.

Instantly, six Elite Ultras and one General appeared from out of nowhere and activated their energy swords.

Aleks and Emilie started stepping back until they realized that they had been encircled by the twelve Covenant soldiers. They turned, back to back, with Emilie facing the Elites, and Aleks facing the Brutes.

"We have you surrounded Demons. Lay down your arms, and I can promise you only imprisonment!" The Elite General shouted to the two Spartans.

"Imprisonment?!" The Brute Chieftain barked at the Elite, "These heretics... these Demons... deserve nothing more than a quick, and painful death."

"And achieve what?" The General shouted back, "The Prophet of Regret has already found the Ark and has entered it. This Great Journey of yours is on the brink of ending."

"Great. It seems that New Mombasa has fallen." an angered Emilie said to Aleks over their private channel.

"Well look who's cheerful." Aleks retorted back to Emilie.

Aleks and Emilie, during this brief discussion, missed a few words passed between the General and the Chieftain.

"By the way General, by decree of the High Prophet of Truth, you are hereby relieved of your position, and the command of your troops has been passed to me."

The General had let out a roar of rage, "This is outlandish."

The Brute smiled, "This is real. I'll show you... Attack."

There was a slight hesitation in all of the Covenant troops, but then the Brutes started charging the Spartans. The Ultras, confused as to what to do, decided to support the Brutes, and charged as well.

"Switch." Aleks shouted to Emilie, and the two immediately swapped spots. Aleks was now facing the Elites, and Emilie was now facing the Brutes.

The two immediately started firing at the Covenant closing in on them. Aleks was focusing fire on the closest Ultra, the one furthest to the right, sending five shots into his chest, breaking the shield, and sending a single shot straight into his head. Emilie concentrated her fire on one of the Brutes, letting out continuous fire until the Brute fell.

As Aleks finished off a second Elite in a similar fashion to the first, he started walking away from Emilie, trying to increase the ever-closing gap between him and the Ultras, as he started working on a third Ultra.

Emilie finished her second Brute. Unfortunately, she had to swap out mags at the same time, so she pulled the empty magazine out, and inserted a new one into her assault rifle. She noticed her hands were starting to shake as the Brutes got closer and closer.

Three and four, Aleks thought to himself as he took out the third and fourth Ultra. He started getting into a steady groove. There were two things that complicated things. One was that the remaining two Ultras were only tens of feet away, and that he only had one magazine of ammunition left. He had to make these next rounds quick yet count.

Emilie finished two more Brutes, and the remaining two were getting closer and closer, to the point where Emilie's hands were starting to shake vigorously, yet controllable. She hastily replaced her magazine, having to make a second attempt at putting the magazine in.

Aleks decided to stop walking and held his ground. He inserted his remaining clip, and open fired on the last two Ultras. After a few seconds of accurate and precise fire, one Ultra fell. A few seconds more, and the second fell. Five and six, Aleks said with a sigh of relief.

Emilie finished the Brute off and started firing at the Chieftain. It came as of a surprise to her that he had personal shielding, and a powerful one at that. She finished her clip and started replacing it. The Chieftain was twenty feet out and closing that gap fast. She pulled a clip out. Fifteen feet. She started putting the clip into the rifle. Ten feet. Her hands were shaking uncontrollably, causing her to drop the clip. Five feet. She gave up on the weapon altogether. She threw it at the Chieftain, turned and shouted at her only help.

"ALEKS!"

Aleks turned around to help her out when heard the sound of shields breaking, and then metal cutting through flesh.

Emilie looked down to notice the bladed end of the Chieftain's Gravity Hammer protruding through her abdomen. She looked back up at Aleks.

"I'm... sorry..." She gasped out before the Chieftain pulled the Gravity Hammer out of her and kicked her forward towards Aleks.

Her body landed face first onto the ground. Aleks had an expression of shock on his face, but only he knew he had it on, as his helmet covered it up.

"And now it is just you, Demon." The Chieftain smirked at him.

Aleks simply raised his DMR at the Chieftain, and kept it trained on him.

A few more Elite Ultras and the Elite General arrived to fully surround the last Spartan.

"You are no threat to me, Demon," the Brute grumbled, "and after you fall, I will lead this battalion to the end of our Great Journey, and we will purge the galaxy of all of you heretics."

The Chieftain made a gesture at the Elites with the word heretics, and it apparently rubbed them the wrong way.

Aleks took note of this, and continued to stare at the Brute, not saying anything.

The General spoke next, "What you speak, Hadrianus, is mutiny!"

"What I speak is the will of the Prophets," the Brute countered, "ever since you Sangheili failed to prevent the Prophet of Regret's death, the remaining Prophets have removed most high-ranking Sangheili and replaced them."

"We have served the Prophets loyally for thousands of years!" the General shouted.

"And you have failed." the Chieftain concluded.

The General brandished his energy sword, and the Ultras around him followed likewise.

"Then you speak of insubordination and mutiny, and you are hereby punished with death." the General concluded.

The Brute swung his hammer around in preparation for a fight, "Then so be it."

The first few Ultras were on him in a second and were swiftly taken out with a swing or two.

As the rest of the Elites fell on the Brute, they all completely ignored the Spartan, and Aleks took the opportunity to retreat away from the Covenant cluster.

Dropping his rifle from its trained position, Aleks turned around and made a beeline away from the ensuing fight.

From the sounds of the fight behind him, Aleks concluded that the fight wasn't going so well for the Elites, and that the Chieftain was holding his own.

A quick glance behind him reinforced that thought, seeing bodies of the General's staff sprawled out across the ground, and the General and two of his remaining Ultras about to spar with the Chieftain.

As Aleks turned back around and prepared for a long run ahead of him, he couldn't get the view of the Spartan clad in bright red EVA armor lying face down on the ground, dead, out of his head.


	9. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

 **November 17** **th** **, 2552 06:18:56**

 **Scott Point, Catawba Island, Ohio, United States of America, United Republic of North America, Earth**

 **Cmdr. Aleksander Nevsky**

Aleks kept on running. He didn't have any sort of destination in mind. He knew that the confusion created between the Elites and the Brute was enough to get away while he could. He only stopped when he noticed he had reached the shore of Lake Erie, where Catawba Island ends.

Instead of trying to find a new route to the closest UNSC base and continue an already ten hour long run, Aleks decided to stop.

He needed some rest, for more than physical reasons.

He didn't feel like sitting. He just wanted to stand there and watch the horizon as the sun as it was about to crest.

They were gone. All of them. Over the course of ten grueling hours, he lost his entire team. Nigel, Deven, Uduak, and Emilie. All gone. Died just like the tens of other Spartans, the tens of thousands of marines, the millions of civilians.

The sun started cresting the horizon.

It laid a blanket of yellow and orange across the lake and the clouds were the thunderstorm that bombarded the team earlier was drifting off to the east.

"No red. No storm." Aleks whispered to himself, feeling a little bit of warmth, despite all the hell he had just lived through.

It was short-lived.

"Demon! I have found you and trapped you." A loud, grumbly, brutish voice called out from behind Aleks.

Aleks didn't need to but decided to turn around to face the enemy he knew he had to face.

The Chieftain looked a little rugged, especially since he took on an Elite general and his entire staff by himself.

"I see that you are surprised that I have lived, but those heretics were no matched for me." The Brute boasted.

To be honest, Aleks thought to himself, after all I had seen today, nothing surprises me. Not to mention that if those Elites were no match for him, why does he look so unkempt?

"I have seen countless of you Demons try to slay me, and every single one of them met a quick, yet painful demise." The Brute continued.

"Is he really monologuing?" Aleks couldn't help but think to himself. He sincerely didn't care how this fight will end. The only thing he had two things left to fight for: his family, and its name.

"And you will be like the rest…" The Brute started to conclude, "Prepare yourself, Demon, for the last fight of your life!"

Aleks didn't need another cue. He immediately brought up his DMR to his shoulder, and started pumping precise, and accurate shots into the Brute.

He knew the first obstacle in this fight was going to be the shield that the Chieftain possessed. From there, he would have to kill the Chieftain, and that isn't an easy task to take on single handed.

Aleks knew that that second thought would have to wait, as the Brute started to charge down on him.

The Brute saw his shielding continue to plummet as shot after another slammed into it, but he was betting that he could get within a Gravity Hammer's reach of the Demon.

He was a somewhat successful bet.

As started swinging the hammer around, he heard an all too familiar sound. It sounded partially of glass shattering, and of energy being expended.

His shields broke.

With a newly found vigor, he didn't know whether it was from anger or fear, he swung his hammer with unprecedented speed.

Unfortunately for him, the Demon was still magically able to take a step back, avoiding the swing, but his gun didn't.

The Chieftain felt like a freight train when he hit, and Aleks could've personally attested to the feeling of being struck by a freight train.

Aleks, whose was being lifted by the Chieftain, quickly pulled his knife out, and stabbed it into the back of the Chieftain. He struck what he knew was the shield generator, damaging it so that the Chieftain's shield couldn't regenerate.

It wasn't until the knife plunged into the Brute's upper back did he realize that.

Erupting a pain filled roar, the Chieftain threw Aleks off of his back, sending the Spartan sprawling onto the ground.

Aleks' next objective was to get past that gravity hammer that the Brute wielded. This Chieftain was obviously very talented at using it, and it wouldn't be easy to defeat him while he still had the hammer.

Thankfully for Aleks, an opportunity arose.

After glossing over his new wound, the Chieftain recovered, and swung his hammer high into the air, arcing it over the top of his head, and brought it down onto the Spartan.

Aleks, still sprawled on the ground, jumped to his feet, narrowly avoiding the hammer as it struck the ground.

Making his move, Aleks jumped onto the shaft of the hammer, and, with both feet, curbed stomped the shaft.

And the shaft responded with a satisfying crack as it bent into a steep angle, nearly breaking it off completely.

The Brute immediately retracted his weapon, aghast with its near destruction.

Aleks took this second or two to recover his breath.

That was all the time he was given, since the Brute immediately, in an incredible act of strength, threw the Gravity Hammer straight at Aleks, who could only counter by bracing himself, and catching it with both arms.

This resulted in his shields completely shattering, and his helmet erupted in the buzzers and sirens that accompanied the breakage of his shields.

Both fortunately, and unfortunately, the Brute decided to take this time to monologue.

"You are proving yourself a good match for me." The Brute groaned, obviously out of pain. "You may think that you have me beat, but I have what you pesky humans call 'a trick up my sleeve'."

Aleks couldn't help but laugh at the misuse of the phrase "a trick up one's sleeve." That was until he heard a sound he always regrets hearing on the battlefield. The sound of electricity being pumped at a high current and voltage through some sort of gas, creating a field of plasma.

"Do you like this, Demon?" the Brute asked, brandishing the energy sword, "I got this off of that Sangheili who thought that he had command over me!"

Aleks, still exhausted from the past day of nothing but pure concentration and brutal fighting, could only look at the energy sword with defeat beginning to rise up in him. That energy sword was just another hurdle Aleks think he might not get over.

"And I am excited to use it!" The Brute finished, immediately starting to advance on the weary Spartan.

Aleks prepared himself for the fight of his life, brandishing his knife in front of him.

The Brute began with a slow thrust towards the abdomen, which Aleks promptly knocked out of the way.

The Brute followed with a second sluggish thrust. It was again sluggishly knocked out of the way.

What began as a fierce and fast fight between two behemoths, turned into a sluggish brawl comparable to a fight between two drunken men.

The Brute decided to switch things up and sent a downward thrust towards the chest of the Spartan, to which he swung knife down to block it.

This resulted in a fight of strength, since they managed to lock sword and knife.

Despite the amount of strength Aleks was putting up, which was a lot given his biochemical augmentations, it wasn't enough to beat the Brute, who managed to continue thrusting the sword forward.

The sword was no longer heading for the chest, but instead went right through the leg, just below the knee.

Aleks immediately collapsed onto that knee, screaming in pain.

The Brute pressed the advantage and threw a fist into the Spartan, sending him sprawling out on the ground.

Aleks started crawling towards a nearby tree, hoping that he could get back up and somehow finish the fight, but the Brute wasn't going to allow him.

He placed his foot onto the back of Aleks, immobilizing him, reached down for his other leg, and broke that one too.

Aleks, writhing in pain that he hasn't felt in a long time, didn't notice that the Brute flipped him over until the Brute picked him up, and Aleks had a split second to grab the arm of the Brute, who was trying to thrust the energy sword into his left side, which would prove to be fatal.

Using all his might, Aleks pushed at the sword as it inched closer and closer towards his chest.

Unfortunately, it wasn't enough, as the sword slowly entered his chest, hitting parts of vital organs.

A sudden burst of adrenaline surged through Aleks, and he was able to remove the sword from his side before it killed him.

The Brute, becoming frustrated at Aleks' resilience, threw him onto the ground and straddled him, and drove the sword onto the helmet, aiming for the two obvious eye sockets on it.

Aleks caught the sword with one hand, desperately trying to stop it from inching closer to his head.

Again, it wasn't enough.

He knew he had to come up with something to end this fight here, but he didn't know what would work. He couldn't stab the Brute, he was just out of reach. The energy sword got closer. An idea pooped into Aleks' head. He debated it in his head, "But I would have to..." "It's the only way out of this."

Aleks allowed the energy sword to drop a bit.

Immediately, a pain shot through Aleks' head as the sword broke through his helmet and gouged into his eyes. He barely stopped the sword from going any further.

The Brute raveled at the blow towards the Spartan, so much so that he didn't notice that he had gotten closer to the Spartan than intended.

It wasn't until a knife slammed into the side of his head did the Brute realized his mistake.

Aleks twisted the knife against the head of the Brute, ending his life, and bringing the fight to an end.

He immediately threw the corpse off of him and turned the energy sword off.

The mere act of retracting the blades of the sword sent another bout of pain through him. He continued by removing his helmet.

He could feel the blood dripping down his face from his punctured eyes, and his eyesight was reduced to what he could see above and below a solid line of gray going across the middle of his eyes.

But even the parts he could see from was starting to fade.

He crawled his way over to the base of a nearby tree. Each individual movement was agonizing, as he felt a massive sharp pain erupt from the side of his chest, where the Brute nearly got a finishing blow into him, and his legs, or what was left of them. He was also beginning to have complications breathing, and began feeling lightheaded from both breath loss, and blood loss.

As he reached the tree, he sent out a distress call, sat back against the tree, and watched the sunrise as the sun finished cresting the horizon.

He said to himself, "If they don't get me now, then I won't make it," and waited.

 **November 17** **th** **, 2552 06:31:25**

 **Northern Ohio, United States of America, United Republic of North America, Earth**

 **Lt. Dave Sparks**

Leaning half-way out of a Falcon, Lt. David Sparks, leader of Team Omicron, was scanning the ground intensively for any sign of the other Spartan team dispatched to distract the Covenant forces from Cleveland.

"Ya better get your ass back into the chopper Spartan," the door gunner shouted to him, "you're going to cause this entire bird to flip."

"I'm looking for the source of the signal Corporal," Sparks barked back at the door gunner, "your job is to shoot at anything not human."

"My job is help transport your ass to and from where you want to go, and make sure this bird doesn't crash on route. Doesn't help when a ton of walkin', talkin' metal insists on hanging of the bird as if it was an excursion."

"So help me god..." Sparks began to rant to the Corporal until the pilot chipped in.

"You two better cut out back there, or I'll drop this copter straight to the ground."

Sparks threw his arm that wasn't holding him to the Falcon in the air in anger. It was obvious he wanted to get to that Spartan quick.

Their goading of the Covenant forces outside of Cleveland went along swimmingly. They received relatively light resistance on their planned route towards Columbus. They arrived with no enemy forces trailing them. No scratches on any of them at all.

Immediately, they were debriefed, and given a pat on the back for their work. The rescue mission in Cleveland to evacuate all the hostages from the stadium was executed flawlessly, and there were no civilian causalities. However, they lost contact with the other team, and no one knew of their status. The general placed Team Omicron on standby with the intent on using them to rescue the remaining team.

As the minutes turned into hours, the exhausted team started dozing off in the briefing room, waiting for something big. Occasionally, the mention of enemy troop movements and troop numbers. Somehow the words 'three regiments' started bobbing around David's head. At around six in the morning, David got up, after finishing a rather nice nap, to see a few of his comrades have left the briefing room. He guessed they went to grab a bite to eat, or a shower. He decided to join them.

Inside the mess tent at the impromptu forward operating base, David found his team, and started joining them for an early breakfast. Immediately, a conversation about the night broke out.

They started with the typical debate over who got the most kills, the highlights, and then the glory of bragging this to others.

A thought peaked in David's mind.

"Hey, did you guys hear something about three thousand troops last night?" David asked.

His team had no clue. They all were just as tired as him, and just as likely didn't understand what was going on that night.

"I have a hunch that that was how many we killed last night," David said to the team, smirking to himself, "it would make bragging to the other team even more better. Especially since they are II's, and they would be beaten by us III's."

Suddenly, the door to the mess tent slammed open.

It was the general.

"SPARKS! I WANT YOU AND YOUR TEAM IN THE AIR RIGHT NOW!" The general shouted.

Without much thought, all six of the members of Team Omicron ejected from the seats of their table and followed the general out to the awaiting Falcons.

David and his team were briefed in flight. They were heading north to relieve their older Spartan comrades.

"They could handle themselves, can't they?" David asked the general, hoping to take a break after yesterday's fun filled adventure through the countryside.

"Do you think they could handle 3,000 Covenant?" The general barked through the Battle-net.

"I thought that was our kill count?" David inquired, with a fear growing in him, both for his pride in his team's kill count, and for the other team.

"HA!" The general again barked through the net again, causing all of Team Omicron to flinch in pain, "You guys barely scratched a thousand. The Spartan IIs received the lion's share of the forces, plus the armor detachment assigned to the Covenant. In other words, they had to fight three thousand plus Covenant troops."

Team Omicron was briefed about the other team's situation. The FOB in Detroit lost contact with them, and the FOB in Columbus couldn't get a bead on the team as well. Fearing for the lives of the Spartan, they wanted to send in a team to extract the others.

David didn't believe the General throughout the brief, but as the they flew over the countryside, following the path of the team, and the wake of destruction they left behind, the General's claims started becoming more and more true.

"My god..." the door gunner on the other side of the Falcon whispered to himself.

David looked out that side of the Falcon, and immediately, his blood went cold.

Sprawled out on the ground on either side of a lake were two Scarabs. In between them, a smoking bridge, obviously destroyed from plasma fire.

David's opinion on the general's report immediately changed, and a surge of motivation for finding the other team immediately took over which lead to the confrontation with the door gunner.

After the confrontation, there was a pause as tensions simmered out.

The pilot boomed over the Battle-net, "Contact! Distress signal. About two kilos east."

The helicopter lurched to the east, its wingman following suit.

"Eta thirty seconds. Prepared to jump." The pilot continued.

Thirty seconds felt like thirty minutes to David Sparks. He checked his weapon, the standard issue MA5 assault rifle, once. Then twice. He patted himself down to make sure he had his extra magazines and grenades. He did this again.

The helicopters lowered themselves at the end of an island sticking out from the mainland.

The Spartans jumped off, waited for their transports to elevate themselves again, and began to look for the team.

"Spread out. Look for them." David said immediately, raising his rifle, hoping that the Spartan IIs did a good job in mopping up the 3,000 Covenant that chased them down, "Can we get some air support?"

"Yeah, we got ya." The pilot responded and started to circle the sky above Team Omicron.

David scanned the area in front of him, hoping to find a Spartan.

Eventually, he stumbled upon the corpse of a Brute Chieftain. Killed by a knife stuck in his head.

"Damn, what a bad way to go out." David muttered to himself, squatting down to inspect the corpse further.

He noticed the there was a lot of blood on the ground. He swapped his attention to the blood. There was too much blood for it to just the Chieftain's. He gazed around for a bit until something caught his attention.

Two thick lines of blood trailed from the corpse of the Chieftain to a tree. From the tree, David made out two legs as if their owners were laying down.

"I found one!" David shouted out through the net, making a break for the tree, "I swear if this is a joke..."

He was cut off by the sight he saw lying beside the tree.

David had a hard time trying to keep some bile down as he analyzed the downed Spartan. There was plenty of blood. His face was covered in it, and it dripped out his side, where David observed a nasty gash. Both his legs were completely unusable. One was broken to the point where it was facing backwards, and the other leg was only attached by a nerve.

David knew he had to act fast.

A feeling urged him to lay a hand on the Spartan's shoulder.

"It's okay," he comforted him, "the battle's over. You're going to be fine." He turned to the sky, "I NEED A MED EVAC, NOW!" he shouted into the battle-net.

Immediately, Aleks began to relax. It's over. The twelve-hour long mission that took the lives of everyone in his team was finally over. He looked up at the sun, which had completed its elevation over the horizon, one last time. It was over. The battle for Cleveland was won. Furthermore, the battle for Earth was most likely won. Humanity will live.

As these thoughts bounced around Aleks' head, his vision began to become more and more gray. Before he lost his sight completely, he felt a tear go down his face.


	10. Chapter 9

Hello all! Sorry for the long delay in posting some more chapters. School has taken up more time than I thought. I'm especially sorry if you were notified that I posted and saw no update. I had to fix the documents because they showed nothing but source code (And that would've been an eye sore). Regardless, here is the update to the story and I hope you all enjoy!

* * *

 **Chapter 9**

 **November 17th, 2552 07:15:45**

 **Detroit, Michigan, United States of America, United Republic of North America, Earth**

 **Dr. Franklin Pierce III**

The chaos had finally calmed down.

Sitting on an operating table in the middle of makeshift hospital, Dr. Franklin Pierce III was staring blankly at a wall. Having worked his way through a twenty-four hour session of surgery after surgery, tired wouldn't describe how he felt.

He had been working almost every day for the past month. The Covenant siege of the remaining planet of humanity was taking a massive toll on all of humanity, in terms of both casualties and moral. The air was always heavy. No one knew how the battles both above and on Earth were going. They never knew which day might've been their last. The last of humanity's.

They just received casualties. They received them in droves. Most of them died on route to the makeshift hospital the unit had setup. It was unfortunate that they couldn't be saved, but they had no time to lament the dead, they had living patients to save. Thankfully, they saved most of the patients that made the journey, although there was the occasional that succumbed to their injuries mid-surgery.

From those that made it through surgery, the doctors learned that a lot of their wounded came from all over the place. Some from damaged ships that crashed on the surface. Some from units operating in the local area, others from across the country. Some of the wounded were even transported internationally from other theaters completely since the local MASH units were overflowing with wounded and dying.

Their MASH unit, the 4077th, were lucky enough for two things: they weren't receiving any of the orbital bombardment, or as much, as others were. They were also lucky to have stumbled by a favorable location for a surgical hospital: an abandon grocery store. In addition to the prefabricated bases parts they brought with them, the building provided enough room to house a lot of surgical tables, and a large pre-op and post-op rooms.

Dr. Pierce's mind was interrupted when one of the nurses called to him.

Apparently, there was one more patient that just came in, and he was in a very serious condition.

Dr. Pierce groggily got up and wandered over to the table where the nurses was setting up the patient to be operated on.

He turned to the other doctors that surrounded the table.

"What's the damage?" Pierce asked, hoping that this would be less serious than it actually was.

It wasn't.

He got a glimpse of the soldier on the operating table, and none of it was beautiful.

The nurse gave the details from the pre-op examination.

"Going from head to tail: both of his eyes have been lacerated and are no longer functioning, a laceration on his upper left side of his torso, massive internal bleeding around major organs and his heart, severe destruction to the tissue and nerves in one knee, and the other leg has a severe closed fracture along the tibia and fibula and is also dislocated at the knee."

Pierce, still taking it all in, almost didn't notice the nurse standing next to him, holding surgical garb out for him to put on.

He hesitantly put it on, scarred at what he saw on the table. How could anything cause that much damage to another being. All in the name for what? He was also surprised that this soldier took this much damage and made it to a medical facility, albeit unconscious.

"Doctor." the nurse said.

Pierce snapped back to reality, "Right…"

He walked over to the table, where his colleagues where already busy operating on the soldier.

"Pierce, see if you could clean up the blood around his internal organs." One of the other doctors called out to him.

"Yeah. Scalpel." He said simply, retrieving the device from the nurse standing next to him.

He went about creating an incision on the chest area when out of nowhere…

"HEY GUYS! THE SANGHEILI ARE NOW OUR ALLIES! THE WAR HAS TURNED!" One of the NCO's tasked to the unit said, bursting through the doors of the operating room.

Everyone turned to the young kid and shouted in unison.

"GET OUT!"

The soldier took the subtle hint and ran back out as fast as he came in.

The doctors continued to work on soldier.

"I don't think this gash needs any more attention. It's already cauterized. I'm presuming that everything underneath has been patched up." One of the doctors concluded.

"That isn't necessarily true. Remember the last time you came to that conclusion?" One of the other doctors said while inspecting one of the soldier's leg, figuring out the best way to fix it.

Everyone remembered the last time that happened. They were dispatched to Paris IV when the Covenant besieged the planet. While operating on an injured airman, the same doctor presumed that the airman wasn't bleeding beyond externally. The day after the surgery, the man had some furious fits of coughs. He coughed up a lot a blood, and then expired.

They were destined to evacuate the planet the next day.

The doctor went on a week-long furlough where, rumor has it, he just drank. Now everyone is sure to give him a gentle reminder every so often.

Pierce was looking at the ribcage, thinking about how to open it up as non-destructively as possible, when he noticed something strange about the ribcage. They weren't the typical color of bones. They had a slight color to them that suggested they were either replaced or augmented in some way.

One of the other doctors spoke up, "Pierce, permission to amputate? The only thing keeping this leg on is the nerve and a few tendons."

Pierce simply nodded his head up and down, still concentrating on the ribs, "Sure, sure, sure."

"Ugh… What in the…" a new voice muttered.

"WAIT!" he shouted.

The doctors about to amputate stopped what they were doing, looking at Pierce for his orders. Pierce, in turn, looked at the soldier, who was looking at him.

Pierce's eyes widened, then turned and stared down the nurse by the anesthetic machine. "WHY DID YOU PUT HIM UNDER?!" he shouted.

The nurse, who was fumbling around with the mask trying to get it over the mouth of the soldier, muttered back "I-I-I-I'm sorry sir. I thought he was already under."

Pierce grabbed the hand of the nurse and forced the mask onto the soldier's mouth. It only took a few seconds for him to go under.

The amputation team continued their work.

"You always put the mask on them, whether they are under or not," Pierce scolded at the nurse.

"I-I-I-I'm sorry sir. I just got caught up in the moment and I just finished medical school and…" the nurse muttered on and on.

"Pierce, I think you need to take a look at this." The doctor whom was operating on the gash said to Pierce.

Pierce walked over, dismissing the nurse, and inspected the gash on the soldier's side.

"It punctured the left ventricle chamber and partially into the right ventricle chambers of the heart. He's going to need a transplant." The doctor told Pierce.

"Do we have any spare cloned hearts?" Pierce asked.

"I'll go check." A nurse on stand-by said to Pierce, before running off.

"In the meantime, can you prepare to a heart transplant Pierce?" The doctor asked.

Pierce sighed, this would be the second one today. "Sure."

"Doctor. The patient's vital signs are beginning to waver." A nurse said.

"Yeah, yeah." Pierce mumbled, his sleepiness taking hold in him.

He got an electric bone saw from a nurse and started at the ribcage. After ten minutes of having at the bone, he looked at his work.

Not even a scratch.

"What the hell are you?" Pierce muttered under his breath.

"Doctor, his heart is starting to fail." A nurse exclaimed.

"We have to get at his heart!" A doctor shouted.

"I'm trying!" Pierce shouted.

He pressed the saw into the ribcage once again.

"His blood pressure is dropping." A nurse called out.

"Get some plasma." Pierce shouted, trying to control the situation.

He pressed into the bone harder.

"Last bag." A nurse said as they attached a bag of plasma to the soldier.

"Heart rate is dropping as well." The nurse noted.

"He's dead in thirty seconds if we don't replace the heart." A doctor called out.

"I know, I know." Pierce called out.

He pushed the saw blade into the ribs with a renewed effort.

"Leg's amputated." A doctor said, holding up the newly amputated and cauterized leg of the soldier, hoping to alleviate the tension.

"Don't need it." Pierce said, still grinding away at the bone.

He stopped for a second to look.

Nothing.

He dropped the saw in exasperation, his jaw open.

He almost collapsed to the ground from his fatigue and from the pressure when a nurse came in.

"Doctor Pierce, we don't have any remaining hearts. We only had the one." They said.

"That can't be it. How about a pacemaker? Something!"

The nurse simply shook their head.

"Twenty seconds till he flat lines." A nurse said.

Pierce immediately went at it again with the saw

When the saw died, he started hitting the ribcage with the dead saw.

All the doctors started trying to pull him away.

But to no avail.

Thrown off him, the doctors could only watch as Pierce tried to save the patient.

He flat-lined.

"NO!" Pierce wretched, raising the saw up into the air to bring it down onto the ribcage.

Then something strange happened. A soft hand placed itself onto Pierce's shoulder.

Pierce hesitated.

A smooth voice broke the chaos, "Dr. Franklin Pierce."

Pierce lowered his arms to look at the man. He was slightly shorter than him. Looked stoic but had the self-confidence to back it up. He was dawned in surgical garb, but it was black instead of the typical white. His name tag was blurry, whether on purpose or not, Pierce didn't know.

"We'll take it from here." The man said, referring to a crew of similar dressed professionals behind him, carrying all sorts of tools and containers that serve a purpose that Pierce could only guess at.

Pierce simply turned around and muttered "Yeah… Sure…" and trudged away from the table. His surgical team followed suit and went about taking a break.

Pierce laid on a recovery bed and watched the new team completely close off the surgical area, putting up makeshift walls using curtains and assigning one of them a door. A team of soldiers took post around the sectioned "room" making it clear that no one was allowed in. Pierce managed to catch a few words on the soldier's uniforms before his eyes shut and he fell asleep.

Office of Naval Intelligence.


	11. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

"In an unprecedented change in the war, the Covenant has extended a peace treaty with the UNSC, sources from UEG parliament house in Geneva tell us. This massive change comes only a few days after rumors were leaked from the former UNSC headquarters in New York about a joint Human-Sangheili alliance. Officials from the UNSC have refused to comment on the topic, but requests that everyone remain sheltered and vigilant until the all clear has been sound. We will update the story as more details come out. I am Katy Mitchell, BBC News, reporting from New Mombasa."

 **March 3rd, 2553 16:33:13**

 **A barren hill, Kenya, East Africa, Earth**

 **Cmdr. Aleksander Nevsky**

An old woman was guiding a slightly taller man through the crowd, carrying a large, boxed shape item wrapped in brown paper. Their destination: a memorial service taking place on top of a hill, separated from the crowd. For the woman, she had no ties for this service. The only gain she could've wished for was to beat another one of those aliens to death for burning her farm down. She killed three when they first came by.

Instead, she was here to support her grandson, who she believed fought bravely for the family and brought military pride back into the family. Unfortunately, it took a toll on him, and that was why she was leading him through the crowd. He couldn't see for himself.

"What did you say this was for Aleks?" She asked, her thick Slavic accent coming though.

"A memorial service for the fallen." He responded.

She nodded, remembering that he told her that when he came back home after news of the war ending reached her.

"If only your parents could see you now…" She said, unsuccessfully trying to brighten the mood.

"Yeah…" Aleks said, bringing back the memory of the discovery of their deaths. Both to the war. Similar fates to billions of soldiers in the UNSC.

As they got closer to the gates, where Military Police were busy either checking invitations or holding people back, they started to hear the chanting of some protest groups that were there to protest the inclusion of a Sangheili delegation to the service.

Aleks and his grandmother were almost to the checkpoint when three men, tall in stature with angry facials stepped in front of them, blocking their way.

"Wee kan't let you through," the supposed leader of this group said to them, his Irish accent hanging in the air.

"You have to. We have an invitation." The old woman said to them, her tone defiant and her stance strong.

"Weell I'm sorrie, but wee kan't have that," the man stated, his posy chuckling after him, "don't want anybody supporting those alien bastards that killed our soldiers and destroyed our homes."

"I'm here to mourn the dead," Aleks said, looking in the direction the sound came from, "there's nothing political about that." He didn't need his eyes to know that he drew the attention of the protester.

"Ayyyyy… So, the eyeless muppet finally speaks. What did you do in the war? Cower behind your mum, eating your Wheaties, polishing your great granddaddy's sports medals?" The man said, poking Aleks in the chest, mocking the fair few medals Aleks had on his dress white uniform.

"I fought." Aleks said curtly, wishing to himself that this conversation would just be over.

"I see, so that's how you lost your eyes. Speaking of which, how many fingers am I holding up?" The man said, holding up the arbitrary two fingers in front of the bandage on top of Aleks' eyes. "I'll give you a hint. It's the number of something I have that you don't."

Aleks simply replied "I believe I can say the same thing about you, but obviously you are lacking something different. Unfortunately, you continue to prove that hypothesis."

The man, getting the hint, grabbed Aleks by the collar and held him up to his face.

"So yee think you're funny, now are ya mate?" The man said, only an inch separating their two faces.

Aleks responded, "I'm thinking that this confrontation is a complete waste of time, and that no matter how this conversation goes, I will be arriving at my destination."

His grandmother spoke up, waving the package in her hand, "You better put my grandson down young man."

"Or else what? You'll send the boogeyman after me?", he said, ending the statement with a boisterous laugh.

It was short-lived.

He felt a huge amount of pain erupt from his groin region. He looked down to see that the grandmother swung the package underneath him with a deceiving amount of strength.

He fell onto his knees, releasing Aleks onto the ground.

Aleks fixed his ruffled uniform and spoke to the other two men, "I recommend you don't follow him in his footsteps."

The two men just watched the two in awe as they walked between the giants to their destination.

"I could've taken them on." Aleks said casually to his grandma after separating themselves from the posy.

"You would've killed them Aleks." She responded, completely aware of his capabilities as a soldier.

The two approached the checkpoint not wasting any time as to be caught up in the politics of the surrounding crowd. They were corralled to a guard, who requested the invitation sent to them. Aleks' grandmother pulled out the invitation that they received weeks earlier.

Aleks' remembered the day they received the invitation. He was sitting in the living room of the family house in Ohio, not very far away from where he fought months earlier.

The letter itself was unique. Unlike most of the mail sent in the twenty-sixth century, this invitation was sent on paper. The entire message was typed in premade calligraphic writing, which is now cryptic to a lot of the population. At the bottom, a flurry of handmade spiral lines wrote out the sender's name: Fleet Admiral Lord Terrance Hood.

He remembered the text to speech machine that read it for him.

"Dear Commander Aleksander Nevsky,

"I cordially invite you and one other guest to attend a memorial service on the third of March, two thousand five hundred fifty-three. I understand that you must've gone a lot throughout the duration the war with the Covenant empire and believe a memorial service for those lost might bring out emotions that are deemed unfit for a member of the armed services like you. I understand if you cannot attend for these reasons. Regardless, please respond with your attendance for this ceremony to the attached address."

The second paragraph listed details about location of the ceremony, who and where to contact, the process of including a second member to attend, and added the fact that the travel will be paid for by the UNSC.

At the bottom of the paper, a flurry of lines was scribbled. It seemed that Lord Hood wrote a personal message to Aleks:

"Thank you to you and your team for the retreating defence of Cleveland. Because of the actions of you and your team, you saved the lives of thousands captured in the city. I am sorry for the loss of your team and I send you my condolences. I will petition the new government to establish a landmark in your team's name. Furthermore, I highly request your presence at this event, since I believe it is the best way for you to cope with your loss."

By this point, Aleks had tears rolling down his cheeks. It has only been a few months, but he still missed his team more than ever. He ran over the events that transpired that one day in November 2552. How he could've saved Nigel, Deven, Uduak, and…

Emilie. He couldn't get the picture of her out of his mind. Her soft features and her deep-blue eyes protruded from the fog that made up his mind. The kiss they had before jumping from Reach as it fell to the Covenant.

The grief caught up to him. He started to cry, thankfully in the safety of the family's house.

His grandmother decided to leave him be. She wasn't too adept at handling situations of high tension. She was unfortunate enough to never of had a traumatic experience that she could rely on for guidance. She had experience a lot during her long life, but not she doesn't have a lot of good experiences.

It all started after her combat with the insurrectionists. After a very successful campaign against the insurrectionists, she came home to a husband that showed her no loyalty. It wasn't long till she found out and threw him out, nearly killing him during so. She took her maiden name after that: Nevsky. A family tied to the military, with tales of warriors who fought off entire armies, to generals who turn the tides of war. Some stories are recent, while some date all the way back to the medieval times.

However, she was left to raise the two children by herself. Thankfully, she received help from a lifelong friend, whom she fought with during the insurrection. A few decades later, he was deployed to another planet.

Harvest, if she remembered correctly.

It wasn't long after that the war with the Covenant broke out. Both her son and daughter joined the armed forces, like her and her ancestors before them. Both volunteered to the ODST units, with her son becoming an adept leader of a platoon. They were on leave when they had their only son, who she now is with.

She kept watch over him until her children came back a year or so later, returning more depressed each time. Humanity was losing the war, and there wasn't much they can do about it. She would try to cheer them up, telling tales of past Nevskys who snatched victory from the jaws of defeat, who conquered lands of far superior enemies, with some avail.

One day, tragedy struck the couple.

The five-year-old Aleksander died. It was so sudden that doctors couldn't weren't able to draw a conclusion, and so untimely that the couple had to immediately redeploy after the funeral.

The next few years could only be described as bitter. She received news that her son and daughter fought with less and less vigor. Every time they came home, they rarely talked to her, instead choosing to spend time with their own selves.

Then, she received a knock on the door. It was a representative from the marine corps and a chaplain.

She fell to her knees and began weeping, not needing to hear the words from the representative to know what fate befell her two children.

The next day, she received another knock. This time it was a dapper man in a naval uniform with a group of four others. His face was like that of her son, but paler and less grim.

He said, removing his cap from a top his head, "This may sound weird, but I am your grandson, Aleksander Nevsky."

She fell to her knees again and began weeping. Her children never got to know that their child was still alive.

She is thankful that their child somehow survived whatever ordeal he went through. He still doesn't want to talk about it, and every time she brings up his team, he breaks down. As much as she understands the loss, she believes it has lasted far too long for it to be healthy, but he doesn't see anyone for it, out of fear for breaking down.

She is hoping that this ceremony will grant him respite.

As she finished her train of thought, they made it to the top of the hill. Located there is a wing of a pelican with some pictures attached to it, and names scratched into the metal. A raised platform stood in front of the wing, overlooking a small opening. Laid out in neat rows and columns are chairs for the small crowd that was there.

Currently, the small crowd was busy conversing with themselves. Some were attaching some more names and pictures onto the wing. Aleks and his grandmother did not partake in these activities.

It was long before Lord Hood came up the slope, with a group of elites in tow, drawing many eyes from the gathered crowd.

Everyone took a seat with an exception to Lord Hood, who took his position in front of the wing, a rifle party, and the famous, and infamous, Arbiter Thel 'Vadam and his guard.

Lord Hood took a moment to gather his thoughts, removed his hat, then started his speech.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to thank you all for coming out today.

"When humanity entered this war, it did not know the hardships it will endure… The lands that will be destroyed… The life that will be loss… It did not take long for it to learn. Quick we were to fall onto our back foot as we began to lose.

"Harvest. Arcadia. New Constantinople.

"Reach.

"Unequivocally, Earth was destined to fall onto this list.

"That was, until we cracked the foundations of the enemy. Forged an alliance where one would've thought there wasn't.

"Through the actions of her troops, humanity began fighting back. And thankfully, we stand here today.

"But that is not why we are here…

"For us, the storm has passed... the war is over. But let us never forget those who journeyed into the howling dark and did not return. For their decision required courage beyond measure; sacrifice, and unshakable conviction that their fight... our fight, was elsewhere. As we start to rebuild, this hillside will remain barren, a memorial to heroes fallen. They ennobled all of us, and they shall not be forgotten."

With the conclusion of the speech, the rifle party was called into attention, and performed the infamous three-gun salute in memorial of the fallen.

Signaling the end of the official ceremony, many were quick to leave the memorial. Either to avoid any politics that could've started up, or to begin to put the worst war in human history behind them.

The Arbiter walked up to the memorial and began a quick conversation with the Fleet Admiral.

Aleks sat in his seat, taking in the words said by Lord Hood. How they applied to him.

For him, he only experienced loss throughout his entire lifetime, granted that his entire lifetime was the war with the Covenant. It started when his team was first deployed to a small planet in the middle of nowhere, tasked with working with local militia and a provisional division with defending it. Unfortunately, led by a madman, who used the planets primary resources, atomic weapons, to poor use. The battle was a horrific loss with Aleks' team having to evacuate from the planet using a prowler provided by ONI.

Each subsequent battle followed a similar pattern. His team was deployed to help evacuate a planet and hold off the Covenant. Things would be looking up, with the team hoping that this battle was a victory. Then a decisive battle would determine that humanity lost the battle.

Despite only being deployed for seven years, Aleks and his former team had enough experience to rival some of the veteran marines they fought with. Rarely did they see any time off from the battlefield.

Now, it was quite the contrary. Aleks had spent more time off the past three months than he did his entire life up until the end of the war. He was throwing around the idea that he would have nothing to do for the rest of his life, even though a part of him knew he would be redeployed somewhere else from some crazy reason.

It was then some random stranger came up to him, handed him an envelope, and left.

All the stranger said to him was "I expect to see you."

Aleks tucked the letter into his dress jacket pocket. He needed no discourse to understand when a member of ONI delivers a message.

It was at this point his grandmother came back from the memorial, where she placed a picture of her son and daughter onto the wing, and payed them homage. She never saw the interaction that had just transpired between Aleks and the stranger from ONI.

She lifted him up from his chair and guided him to in front of the memorial. She took the brown package she was carrying for the better part of an hour and presented it to him.

"Unfortunately, the military's delivery of this has been rather…" she searched for the word, "poor."

Regardless of the circumstance, she continued, "For thousands of generations, the Nevskys have fought bravely and lead passionately, their armies, nations, peoples, and our family to greatness. This sword was forged using the metal from Ulrich von Jungingen's own sword, given to Zbigniew Oleśnicki Nevsky after the battle of Grunwald as a sign of thanks from the grand Duke Vytautas for saving his life during the battle. Since then, the sword has been passed down, seeing thousands upon thousands of battles, and being the cause of deaths for millions.

"Since your father died before doing the honor, I pass this symbol of the family down to you. You, by tradition, can make add one addition to the sword before you pass it on."

Aleks removed the paper wrapping to reveal a box. The box was a little over five feet in length, a foot in width, and three inches in depth. It was made of maple, polished till it gleamed. Attached was a handle made from real, toughened leather, and two locks made with brass, with a flourish reminiscent of the 17th century enlightenment.

Aleks opened the case. Inside was the sword that his grandma talked about, except it was in pieces. To one side laid a hilt, five inches in length, garnished with an ornate yet practical hilt, and alternating gold and silver colored braid on the handle. Beneath it was a book labelled "The Art of the Sword and the Many European Techniques." Surrounding this, laying in perfect rows were four blades, each with their own shining steel and brass sheath. Their straight design with a slight bend in the end indicated were all Koncerz style blades, Aleks noted to himself. Each one had its own label indicating the length of the sword: with the longest blade making the sword five feet in length to four feet seven inches in length, to the shortest being three feet six inches to three feet one inch. All these items had their own indentation into a firm, red velvet lining along the inside of the case.

Aleks closed the case, thanking his grandmother for the honor of carrying the family tradition. His grandmother, feeling that this day was complete, urged for them both to go home.

Aleks refused, he had one more thing he had to do.

He walked up to the memorial on that barren hillside, and took a knee, looking at all the pictures attached to the pelican wing. All the lost teammates during the war.

"It's been an honor, you guys." Aleks said, attaching a picture of Omega team to the wing. In the picture, the team looked completely cheerful, having just completed training and been given their first assignment. Unfortunately, Aleks wasn't in the picture since he volunteered to take it.

He continued to stay there, one knee on the ground, lost in thought of the memories he had. He lowered his head as tears began to come down his face.

It was until he felt a hand touch his shoulder.

"Time to go Aleks." His grandma said, guiding him off the platform.

As they walked down the hill, Aleks believe he should've been in solace. At peace with himself.

But he wasn't. Something in him kept him fixated on the picture, and furthermore, on his deceased team.


	12. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

 **March 10th, 2553 11:43:01**

 **HIGHCOM Facility Bravo-6, Sydney, Australia**

 **[Name Redacted]**

A man walked into the one of the remaining UNSC Headquarters. He drew no attention from the tens of people milling about in the lobby of the building. The few who took notice saw that the man was of average stature, five feet eight inches, had dirty blonde hair that cut to a solid yet professional length all around. He sported a moustache and goatee of similar color. Many would find it curious that he carried an ornate officer's sword around but gave no additional thoughts.

He was wearing his dress white uniform, like everyone else in the building. He sported a few medals from his years in the war, but not as many as he earned. He even sported a massive scar from the war: a bandage covering his eyes. Several noticed his seeing eye dog, fewer noticed his rank: Commander.

It was a miracle the building remained untouched from the battle of Earth, which was roughly five months ago. The building, HIGHCOM B-6, was the home to some of the major departments of the UNSC military arm, namely, the Naval Special Weapons department and, most importantly, the UNSC Security Committee. Additionally, there was a major administrative branch of the Office of Naval Intelligence located here, and that was the destination of the man.

He walked to the front desk and asked the lady where the ONI office was. He spoke like that of a gentleman. Calm, collected, and very cordial. His voice thick yet gentle. His elocution perfect. It carried a slight Slavic accent that wasn't overwhelming.

The clerk was startled at the sight of the man. She was not expecting a man covered in bandages to be there. Immediately, she indicated the direction of the ONI department, not wanting to work with the sight that beheld her.

Thanking her, the man continued his way, letting the dog guide him.

Entering the ONI department wing of the building, the man approached the desk clerk.

"What do you want sweetie?" the clerk asked, sporting a stereotypical Jersey accent.

"I'm here for a meeting with a Robert." The man replied.

"Robert who?" She responded, starting to file her fingernails.

"Just Robert. That's what the invitation said."

The woman stared at the man, slowly moving here finger to the intercom on here desk.

"Robert…" she said, hesitating on the name "you have a visitor. A Commander…"

"No need to tell me." A man said from the back of the room. "Damn. They weren't joking when they said you arrived on time. 11:45 on the dot."

"I try." The first man said giving a warm smile and extending his hand. "I'm presuming you're Robert."

"Yes." Robert responded returning the handshake, giving a similar smile except callous and eerie in nature.

"Please, step into my office," Robert said, gesture the man into the office, "we have a lot to discuss about."

The man made his way into Robert's office, being guided more than followed.

Inside, the office was rather bare. It contained all the necessary equipment needed: a desk with a lamp and desktop, a lone filing cabinet, and a lone shelf on the wall with a malnourished plant. A very hollow room, reflecting the man who worked in it.

Unfortunately, the officer couldn't see these features, or lack thereof, at the time, however, his guide dog sensed the dread, and began to whimper. He comforted the dog as Robert closed the door behind them.

"I would like to introduce you to Admiral Margaret Parangosky, director of the Office of Naval Intelligence," said Robert, again gesturing towards the Admiral without realizing the man was still blind.

"But I'm guessing you already know who she is." Robert said, trying to humor the man, giving his cold smile.

The man saluted Parangosky, and immediately shook her hand, again giving a warm smile with it. He could tell by her rather tight grip and fierce shake that she was a woman of determination. He recognized the attempt to gain power in the conversation.

 _Looks like ONI's trying to throw the entire book at me_ , the officer thought to himself. _Whatever it is they want, they want it bad, and if they want it bad, they want to use it for something controversial._ He immediately began speculating what the conversation was going to be about. How they were going to push him to achieve their agenda, and how he could rebuttal it and save himself from partaking in something that was destined to get him in jail for crimes against humanity.

He kept on shaking Parangosky's hand, making the situation more awkward than necessary. After a few seconds, she withdrew her hand, increasing the power the officer had in the conversation.

He kept his smile, knowing that he sent a solid message that this wasn't going to be easy for them.

"You may take a seat Commander." Robert said, pulling a chair out for the man to sit in.

He hesitated, then took a seat. Parangosky followed on the other side of the desk. Robert just stood behind the man.

Silenced ensued.

"If I may ask, Admiral, why was I called here today?" The officer asked, looking at Parangosky.

"We have an offer for you, Commander." Robert said as he began to pace behind the man. "In August 2552, a mistake happened to the UNSC Marathon Class Cruiser _Feeling Lucky_ when it traveled to a distress call from a civilian source. In the incident report, the _Feeling Lucky_ and her detachment of ships traveled to quote another galaxy, and potentially with it its own politics, military conflicts, and resources, unquote."

"Yeah, I know the incident report all too well Robert. It's a slipspace error. It happens all the time. Nothing of import." The officer said, trying to dismiss something he knew probably too much about.

Robert put a hand on his shoulder, "Tomorrow, the UEG parliament is going to have a closed-door debate and vote about sending an expedition force. The day after that, the UNSC Security Committee is going to convene to determine what resources HIGHCOM can allocate to this force. A month from then, the fleet will be sent to a waypoint station that will help facilitate the travel to this new galaxy."

"You make this sound certain." The officer said.

"I don't know if you've paid attention to this war, but humanity can use whatever allies and resources it can. It is certain the UEG will explore this option to its fullest." Parangosky said, demeaning the comment made by the man.

"Well, if everyone and their mother knows this plan is going to go through, why does ONI care about it?" The officer replied.

"We may know everything about the plan, who's voting in favor or not, the major leadership that will be instated for the expedition," Robert paused, laid a hand on the man's shoulder and squeezed, "the man who wrote the proposal."

The man shrugged off Robert's attempt. "Again, what does ONI care about the expedition?"

"We do not know anything about this galaxy we're sending an entire expedition fleet to, you fool." Parangosky said with an irk.

"And I'm guessing you want me to gather intelligence about this galaxy and everything involved?" The officer retorted, a smile coming back onto his face.

"That's our job as ONI, to have intelligence." Parangosky said.

"If that's the mission of ONI, then you've done a really bad job sticking to it. You know… with all your secret projects… and… all… Now that I think about it, I don't think I want to be involved, for fear of a leak. I don't want to be involved in the ensuing fire" The officer said.

"You've got to be kidding me." Parangosky said, resting her head onto her hand.

"Trust me," Robert said, "this job comes with a promotion. A raise. Something to justify the risk. How does… Captain sound to you?"

"How does 'leaks reveal military cover ups of human experimentation with disease that can cause extinction of all races'?" The officer said, dropping the smile.

During one of his field missions, he stumbled across a bank of classified ONI information. None of it was guarded from access. It was here he learned about the Spartan-II project, the Spartan-III project and its subsequent suicidal missions, the midnight facility, and ONI's involvement in experimenting with the flood. It was there he began his distrust in the organization.

Robert called out from the side of the room, where he was staring at the wall, "Commander, you never fail to surprise me. You see, I have been studying you for the past few months. You are a brilliant subject to study. How you use all your training and knowledge in the field. Your creativity. It's fascinating."

He looked at the officer. "I just have a few questions to ask."

Immediately, Robert grabbed the man and swung him around till he faced him. If the man had functional eyes, he would've saw that their faces were only a few inches apart.

"Have you thought about what you're going to do for food, shelter, drink? Are you just going to live with your grandmother until the end of your days? Or… are you going to do the only thing you know how to do: fight."

Robert released the man and continued to pace. "Get off your ass and do what this government spent money for you to be: a pawn." Robert concluded.

The man was enraged at the insult that was thrown at him, but only a stern frown was displayed on his face. As much as he hated it, Robert did have a point. Unless another war broke out in the next few months, he was left without a job, nothing to do, and nowhere to go. He had no practical skills to transfer over to a civilian life. He was a superior leader that could pull any group of people together, but he couldn't show proof of these in an interview since his examples are under strict lock and key by the very organization that is trying to rehire him now.

He had no more options but to cave in to Robert's demands.

"Fine," the officer said with a hint of disgust, "I'll agree to the offer."

"Perfect…" Robert said, his cold voice stinging as he said that one word.

Parangosky laid a piece of paper in front of the man. At the top were the words 'Offer of Employment' with the Office of Naval Intelligence seal and the UNSC seal.

 _I once again sell my soul to ONI,_ the man thought to himself, using his text-to-speech machine to find the lines on the piece of paper where he must sign his name.

Robert began the description of the job, "You will be assigned to Battlegroup Maginot, the proposed name of the group that will travel to this new galaxy. You are going to be assigned as the director of Spartan operations in this new theater. In other words, you get to dictate what the Spartans do. Your second in command is another man of ours you may recognize: Aleksander Nevsky."

The man stopped his writing on the paper and began thinking _. Strange. ONI wants to strengthen their position on this mission. Not only putting two people in the Commanding and Executive Officer positions, but making them…_

Robert continued, "In addition, you will be tasked to learn as much as you can about this new galaxy. Planets, governments, militaries, logistics, et cetera, and send your findings back to us."

The man replied, "Don't you think that's too much for one man to handle?"

Robert countered, "Knowing you, that should be too easy, given your… enhancements. Oh, and one more thing: to keep this as low as possible, and to prevent any contradictions, we are going to give you a new name."

The man sighed in defeat as he finished signing the paper, slide it back to Parangosky, and rose from his chair, preparing to leave.

Before the man left, Robert made one last retort, "Congratulations on the promotion, Captain Evan Selviksky. I expect great things from you. By the way, get your eyes fixed. The UNSC has finally created a means to replace eyes."

Evan finished shutting the door behind him. _Asshole_ , he thought to him himself. He just wanted to leave and prepare for this mission he was assigned to.

 **April 12th, 2553 07:13:01**

 **UNSC Naval Drydock, Mars**

 **Captain Evan Selviksky**

The next few weeks was a blur to him. Most of the time was spent training. He spent many hours of the day just sparing with his sword, getting used to using it. He doubted that he would ever use it, but it was something he could rely on if worse came to worse. The only highlights of the month were when he received surgery for his eyes, and the fleet held a preliminary meeting discussing the logistics of the fleet.

The meeting was led by the primary officer of the Battlegroup: Two-Star Admiral Lord Albert Alger. A British man of nobility with a fair background in naval combat, having lead some flotillas against the insurrectionists, and throughout the war with the Covenant. He was slightly taller than Evan's height. His hair was a steely gray, his face cleanshaven and proper. His age showed his experience.

Before the meeting, Evan handed an envelope to the CO, its contents very secretive. Alger took a minute to look over the paper inside. Curiosity spread across his face.

"Indeed…" Alger said, his older, received pronunciation British accent protruding from his voice, "ONI have their noses in the air on this one. Do not worry Captain, I understand any plight that might burden you."

Evan was appreciative of the warm gesture by the Admiral. Due to his commitments with ONI, he would have to take time away from the campaign in the new galaxy. His second in command, Aleks Nevsky, was also in the same dilemma. In fact, he couldn't make that very meeting.

The contents of the meeting were rather straight forward. The battlegroup was to head to a recently finished station over by Alpha Centauri to facilitate a safer slipspace transit to the new galaxy. Aleks' transit to the new galaxy a few months earlier had very little chance of success both ways.

 _Well, ain't he lucky._ Evan thought to himself, chuckling to himself.

The battlegroup was to be assigned 11 ships. Six of them were a mixture of _Charon-class_ and _Paris-class_ frigates that made it through the Human-Covenant. Two were _Hillsborough_ -c _lass_ destroyers, also survivors of the Covenant onslaught. A _Halcyon-class_ cruiser and an _Autumn-class_ heavy cruiser that was soon to be constructed. The flagship for the fleet was announced to be a _Punic-class_ carrier that was in the final stages of construction.

In addition to a small fleet, the battlegroup was given an army detachment numbering around 50,000 strong, with a handsome complement of armored vehicles. The detachment was big enough to hold a superior force off long enough to leave the galaxy, but not enough to win a war.

The detachment was commanded by Colonel Adam Tolker. He was around five foot seven, which was shorter than Evan. He sported the stereotypically American beer belly and a tough as leather face. He believed that he could take over the galaxy with this small "army", if he had to. This attitude dictated his personality.

Admiral Alger stressed that if there was any conflict in the new galaxy the battlegroup was in, the battlegroup wouldn't be able to handle a prolonged battle. In addition, the fleet was to enact the Cole Protocol if it ever had to withdraw.

Evan, as the head of all Spartan operations, was assigned three Spartan teams, in addition to his second in command, who was an entire team on his own. One of the teams was a leftover team of Spartan IIIs, team Omicron. Evan ran into this team several times in his military experience during the Human-Covenant war. The other two teams were a batch from the newest program. They were Spartan IV's. His was tasked with training them and making sure they were up to speed with their equipment, all of which was new to him.

He was motivated for this new job and was ready to start.

Remembering that he was at a dockyard, Evan snapped out of his memory and looked at his surroundings.

Around him, the loading deck was like a bee's nest with all sorts of men, equipment, and vehicles moving all around the place with a sense of purpose.

Taking up the foreground was the latest capital ship of the UNSC navy: The UNSC _Preston J. Cole,_ built with the best weapons, slipspace engines, and navigational systems the UNSC could afford at the time.

Evan noticed a few drydocks were taken up by the skeleton of a ship. A UNSC ship the size Evan hasn't ever seen before.

He quickly grabbed one of the dockworker walking about and asked about the ship under construction.

"It's thee newist line er' Supercarriers, I 'ere." The dockworker said through his thick accent.

"Are we going to be assigned that ship?" Evan inquired.

"Like hell I wood know. Maybee?" The dockworker replied brusquely as he walked away, leaving Evan behind.

Evan made his way onto the _Preston J. Cole_ , maneuvered his way through the complex series of hallways and corridors, and took a few minutes to get settled in his room. It was the same size as all the other quarters for officers that weren't the Admiral, enough room to fit two men side by side, had a modest bed to one side, a closet at the foot of the bed, and a desk with a computer on it, underneath an overhead compartment for storage. The room also came with a chair for the desk, which now was pushed hard against the desk due to Evan's luggage lying all over the place. A thick suitcase on the bed, an ornate wooden box on the desk, and a giant titanium crate in the middle.

Evan chuckled to himself. Before a final meeting between the major officers for the expedition, he requested some dockworkers to take his luggage to his room, and to take the crate to the Spartan deck on the ship for storage.

"It appears they thought it was mine." Selviksky chuckled to himself, noting the irony of the situation.

A voice broke the silence, "Attention all crew and passengers. Launch will begin in fifteen minutes."

Evan decided to leave unpacking till later and headed out to the bridge. He always enjoyed a nice launch.


End file.
